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Corruption is motivated by the possibility of securing something of value for oneself and ones allies. The desire to secure benefits is a human trait and generally positive for development; various forms of rewards drive humans to get up in the morning, do a good job, and act responsibly. The discussion now turns to the opportunity to secure more benefits than are entitled to within the existing rules of the game; specifically, the opportunity to grab at the expense of society. A decision maker has the authority to influence an outcome that matters to the briber. For steering a decision in the bribers direction, the decision maker is compensated with a bribe. The steered decision and the bribe now become assets that usually exceed what at least one of the players would have obtained without the corrupt act. The opportunity to seize assets through some form of power misuse differs across sectors, organizations, and decision-making situations. This chapter describes the circumstances in which the risk of corruption is particularly highin other words, where the drivers of corruption can be found.

Corruption and thefts of public assets harm a diffuse set of victims, weakens confidence in public institutions, damages the private investment climate, and threatens the foundations of the society as a whole. In developing countries with scarce public resources, the cost of corruption is an impediment to development: developing countries lose between US

The fight against corruption is a developmental imperative. While international efforts have achieved some significant results, they also illustrate the extent of the challenges that remain. A key lesson of experience is that tackling corruption needs to be waged simultaneously on two fronts: prevention and enforcement. Both approaches are complementary and self-reinforcing. The vast scale of illicit financial flows from the proceeds of corruption and the challenges associated with national and international asset recovery efforts call, in particular, for significant investments in prevention and a broadening of prevention tools. Income and asset disclosure (IAD) systems are gaining prominence as a tool in the fight against corruption, and have the potential to support efforts in both prevention and enforcement. This contribution is recognized in the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and other international anticorruption agreements. Chapter one of this guides provides an overview of the objectives of IAD systems, identifies the relevant international anticorruption instruments, and provides a summary of key considerations that should influence the design, implementation, and enforcement of an IAD framework. Chapters two and three drill down into the design of IAD systems and address practical aspects of implementation.

Corruption and thefts of public assets harm a diffuse set of victims, weakens confidence in public institutions, damages the private investment climate, and threatens the foundations of the society as a whole. In developing countries with scarce public resources, the cost of corruption is an impediment to development: developing countries lose between US$20 to US$40 billion each year through bribery, misappropriation of funds, and other corrupt practices. Corruption is by no means a \"victimless crime.\" This study aims to explore the standing of States and Government entities as victims and the possible recourse to private actions to redress public wrongs. States and Government entities may act as private litigants and bring civil suits to recover assets lost to corruption. The goal of this work is to promote knowledge and understanding as well as to increase the use of civil remedies and private lawsuits to recover stolen assets in the context of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) offences. The UNCAC, the global standard for the fight against corruption, does not contain a legal definition of corruption itself but lists an array of offences, including public and private sector bribery and the embezzlement of public and private sector funds. The study will mainly focus on these two types of corruption, namely bribery and embezzlement of funds. This study is not intended in any way to minimize the importance of criminal proceedings and confiscation in addressing acts of corruption. Rather, it will show that civil law remedies can effectively complement criminal penalties by attacking the economic base of corrupt activities both in the public and the private sectors. In fact, given the magnitude of the challenges, all avenues of asset recovery, be they criminal or civil, should be explored simultaneously in order to tackle corruption from each and every angle and achieve the goals of deterrence and enforcement. Hence, while criminal law expresses society's disapproval of the corrupt acts and aims at dissuasion, punishment, and confiscation of illicit proceeds, civil law focuses on victims' interests and aims at compensation and restitution. These procedures may occur sometimes in parallel, sometimes sequentially. An effective response to corruption very often requires concomitant use of both criminal and civil law remedies to achieve the desired result.

The requirement that public officials declare their income and assets can help deter the use of public office for private gain. Income and asset disclosure (IAD) systems can provide a means to detect and manage potential conflicts of interest, and can assist in the prevention, detection, and prosecution of illicit enrichment by public officials. Growing attention to anticorruption policies, institutions, and practices has led to increased interest in financial disclosure systems and the role they can play in supporting national anticorruption strategies and in helping to instill an expectation of ethical conduct for individuals in public office. IAD systems are also a key element in the implementation and enforcement of provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption and other international anticorruption agreements. This attention has sparked interest among policy makers and practitioners in the design features and implementation practices that make for effective financial disclosure administration. The case studies collected in this volume are intended to profile a range of systems and practices to help respond to this growing interest.

Much has been written about the role of law in furthering development. More analysis and debate is needed to understand more fully the true nature of this role. The World Bank Legal Review collects much of this debate and analysis, contributed by scholars and practitioners from around the world. The subtitle of the volume, Legal Innovation and Empowerment for Development, focuses attention on how the law can respond to the challenges posed to development in a world slowly emerging from a protracted economic crisis. “Innovation” in law means new strategies and ways of thinking about what the law can do in the development realm. “Empowerment” can mean many things, such as how to place the law into the hands of the poor. The two concepts are linked by their relevance to the future of law as a force for development. This volume contains essays that examine legal innovations and efforts at empowerment worldwide, in individual countries and in the broader international system more generally. Contributions have been collected from scholars and practitioners from across the world. The World Bank Legal Review is an important contribution to the scholarship of law and development.

The Asset Recovery Handbook is a practical tool to help policymakers, public officials, and those who have been entrusted with recovering stolen assets by informing them on how to pursue proceeds of corruption and navigate the challenges of international asset recovery.

Over the past 30 years there has been considerable research on the political economy of reform. Yet despite this, little is known about strategies for managing the politics of change—moving from a bad to a better equilibrium. Part of the challenge of studying this issue stems from the difficulty of obtaining detailed, so-called “blow-by-blow” information on actual reform processes. From this type of information, one can discern and cull practical lessons on strategy, which by its very nature is about dealing with political barriers or problems as they crop up during the implementation process. This study looks at the sequence of events that ultimately led to the passage of legislation that markedly altered the rules that govern public procurement in the Philippines. The study attempts to distill operationally useful lessons for managing the politics of a reform process.

This is the third in a series of World Bank studies that examines patterns and trends in corruption in business-government interactions in the transition countries of Europe and Central Asia. The message of this series is positive: Corruption has fallen since 2000 in many transition countries in the region. Firms are paying bribes less frequently and in smaller amounts (as a share of reveneues) than in the past, and they see corruption as less of a problem for business. Reforms have accelerated in the past decade. Many countries are cutting red tape, simplifying taxes, and strengthening audits. These reforms are translating into lower levels of corruption in areas such as tax and customs administration, business licensing, and inspections. While the impetus for reforms and their design and implementation vary across countries, the link between reform and results is unmistakable.There is no room for complacency, however. Corruption is not falling in all countries or all sectors, and even the most successful reformers still tend to have higher levels of firm-level corruption than in Western Europe. The burden weighs most heavily on the new private firms that are the engine of growth and employment in the region. And even in countries that are showing success, the gains are not irreversible. Leaders need to continue to open their economic and political systems to greater competition, foster transparency and accountability in the public sector, and reduce administrative and regulatory burdens for firms.

This work analyzes the Perception of university students about open government and transparency within the Mexican anti-corruption system and the normative framework of the National Anticorruption System, in the knowledge that law students have about this legal branch. For this, the study addresses the case of the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas (UAT), a public-state Higher Education Institution (IES) that has participated in anti-corruption projects at the national level and offers a law degree. The research focus is quantitative and descriptive in scope, a survey was virtually applied to 262 law students using Microsoft forms software. The findings reflect that, despite the fact that students know that citizen participation is essential, they are not interested in improving their environment.