Fight Corruption

Governance, Transparency and Anticorruption

International Initiatives to Combat Corruption

A number of international initiatives aim to reduce corruption, that have direct relevance to infrastructure projects. These initiatives promote transparency, accountability, and good governance. Below are key programs, tools, and legislative frameworks that support anti-corruption globally.

Addressing Corruption Risks in Infrastructure Projects

Poor governance and corruption undermine the economies of developing countries as well as the World Bank's core mission of poverty reduction and disproportionately affect the poor. The World Bank has a fiduciary obligation to assure its own shareholders and stakeholders that funds are used for their intended purposes and so seeks to strengthen governance and anti-corruption measures in its borrower countries.

PPPs can be susceptible to corrupt activity if not carefully planned and designed, as with general public procurement. Prevention of corruption requires the integration of anticorruption approaches during project design. This page provides examples of some of the tools that the World Bank and other institutions employ to address the risk of corruption in infrastructure projects. 

Another crucial area of reducing corruption in PPPs is by encouraging transparency in the bidding process, contract award and implementation. With support from PPIAF, the World Bank has launched a self-paced e-course, Planning and Implementing Disclosure in PPPs, consisting of four modules and an introduction, based on the World Bank’s Framework for Disclosure in PPPs. The course guides PPP practitioners in planning and implementing PPP disclosure and walks participants through the disclosure diagnostic process. Stakeholders can use the knowledge and tools provided in the course to assess the status of PPP disclosure in a given country and implement a customized disclosure framework.

The World Bank Group, in collaboration with the Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST) and PPIAF has also prepared A Framework for Disclosure in PPP, expanding on a study and report of WBG on Disclosure of Project and Contract Information in Public Private Partnerships, part of a larger G20 initiative. 

Beyond the Balance Sheet Platform and Toolkit

IFC "Beyond the Balance Sheet" platform is a practical one-stop shop for companies, banks, regulators, and stock exchanges to guide them through leading disclosure and transparency regulations and practices. The Platform’s overarching goal is to serve as a primary and comprehensive source of reliable information that helps navigate and understand the evolving global and regional landscape of sustainability disclosure standards and frameworks.

Beyond the Balance Sheet Disclosure and Transparency Toolkit provides companies with step-by-step guidance on how to prepare comprehensive and integrated annual reports. It goes beyond traditional financial reporting and addresses the modern corporate value creation pillars – strategy, governance, risk management, and performance that integrate material sustainability (ESG) factors. 

International Transparency and Anti-Corruption Initiatives

  • Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Three and a half billion people live in countries rich in oil, gas and minerals. With good governance the exploitation of these resources can generate large revenues to foster economic growth and reduce poverty. However when governance is weak, such resources endowments may result in poverty, corruption, and conflict. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) aims to strengthen governance by improving transparency and accountability in the extractives sector. The EITI is a coalition of governments, companies, civil society, investors and international organizations. It has developed a robust yet flexible methodology for monitoring and reconciling company payments and government revenues. The EITI is a globally developed standard that promotes revenue transparency at the local level.
  • World Bank Support of EITI - Press Release, Fact Sheet
  • ResourceContracts.org, the online, searchable and user-friendly database of publicly available oil, gas and mining contracts from around the world that was developed by CCSI, together with the World Bank and Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), now features contracts and documents from 90 countries; it just retrieved the first disclosed oil contract from Guyana from the public domain.
  • Construction Sector Transparency Initiative (CoST)
  • Transparency International

World Bank Anticorruption Action Plans

Anti-Corruption Legislation

Anti-corruption legislation aims to prevent and detect corruption, which is commonly defined as the abuse of entrusted power for personal gain. See examples of anti-corruption legislation below. 

Freedom of Information (FOI) Legislation

Freedom of Information Legislation provides the public with access to information held by public authorities. It plays a crucial role in promoting transparency and accountability, and help minimize corruption risks. See examples of national Freedom of Information Laws below. 

Other Anti-Corruption Tools and Approaches

How to manage Unsolicited Proposals

Governments may be presented with unsolicited proposals for infrastructure projects by private sector entities. How to respond to unsolicited bids so as to protect transparency in the procurement process and recognize the initiative of the proponent, is typically difficult. A number of approaches have been developed. For more on this, go to Unsolicited Proposals.

Output Based Aid

Through Output-Based Aid, aid can be conditional on seeing improvements in procurement processes and other initiatives designed to reduce the risk of corruption in Infrastructure projects. For more on this, go to the Global Partnership for Results-Based Approaches (GPRBA), formerly known as the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA).Learning and Training

Learning and Capacity Building

Useful Links

Further Reading

Related Content
Additional Resources

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