TI Slovakia has conducted audits of municipal governments in Slovakia to develop anti-corruption strategies. The audits involve a 3-phase process: 1) Identifying vulnerable policies through research and interviews, 2) Developing recommendations to increase transparency and limit discretion, and 3) Assisting with adoption of new regulations. Municipalities like Martin that implemented recommendations saw impacts like increased public monitoring and trust in government as well as clearer rules limiting corruption for employees. The audits have helped improve governance at the local level in Slovakia.

1. Conducting audits
in Slovak
municipalities

2. Background
• The decentralization of public authority, transfer of the
competences, powers and public resources to local and
regional government has brought many positives, but it
also means an increase in perceived corruption at this
level of governance.
• As it is clear from the current poll , almost one third of
citizens perceive the corruption in local government as
very extended in the long term.

3. Background
Local council, local government
(FOCUS, November 2009/March 2006/May 2004/March 2002/October 1999,
% of respondents)
November 2009 28 25 25 9 14
March 2006 28 20 28 8 16
May 2004 28 19 25 8 20
March 2002 25 20 23 10 22
October 1999 27 20 24 5 24
bribery exists and is widespread it exists and is less widespread
it exists but cano not judge its occurence bribery does not exists
do not know whether bribery exists in this area

4. The most vulnerable areas according to the
poll
" According to your opinion, in which of
the following areas corruption or
clientelism occur?"
(each area assessed individually)
1= in this area corruption and clientelism occur
2= corruption and clientelism do not occur in this area
3= N/A, this area is not in our municipality
9= no opinion

5. The most vulnerable areas according to the
poll
AREA 1 2 3 9
recruitment policy 50,6 21 3,9 24,6
selling of municipal real estates 40,8 19,1 11 29,2
issuing of distinct permissions 40,6 28,7 2,4 28,2
public procurement 36,3 23,4 3,4 36,9
construction proceeding 35,2 29,1 5,2 30,5
renting of non-residential spaces 32,9 26 11,7 29,5
renting of flats 27,5 26,1 19,4 27,1
selling of flats into individual assets 26,1 26,1 20,1 27,8
selling of flats into individual assets 26,1 26,1 20,1 27,8
Source: FOCUS for TI Slovakia, November 2007

6. Development of audit strategy - history
• Since its establishment, TI Slovakia is actively dealing with the
municipalities, their administration and the problems stated
before.
• In late 2008, the newly elected mayor of Martin, Andrej Hrnčiar,
approached TI Slovakia in search of a transparency package.
• TI Slovakia and Martin launched the project called „Transparent
city“ and its team of experts developed strategy and
methodology for carrying out the audits in municipalities.
• The project creates tools by which public can do both: to
monitor activities of local administration and to analyse them -
and, eventually, participate in it.

7. Methodology
The project usually consists of three phases and primarily concentrates on 17
municipal policies which were identified as key municipal policies:
• public property sales and leasing policy • land use planning and construction policy
• recruitment policy/staffing • grant-giving policy
• policy of civic participation in municipal • policy of transparency of legal entities
decision-making constituted and established by municipality
• access to information policy: accessing vs. • public procurement policy
disclosing • policy of public-private partnerships
• communication/media policy • housing policy
• ethical infrastructure and conflict of • policy of allocation of places in municipal
interest of elected representatives social care facilities
• ethical infrastructure and conflict of • policy of budgeting and informing public
interest of the City Hall employees about it
• ethical infrastructure and conflict of • policy of public order
interest of employees of municipal
companies

8. I. phase
• Aim: • Activity:
– identification of the areas that are – audit of the current state of the 17
the most vulnerable to corruption policies stated before
– gathering data about particular
• Precondition: policies from the City Hall
– establishment of the team employees through questionnaires
consisting of the TI Slovakia experts – meetings and consultations with
and the City Hall employees and the city deputies and relevant
deputies emploees
– own research on the city rules and
procedures and webchecking
• Output:
– analysis of the data and documents
– audit report
- assessment of the questionnaires
The basic concept through which TI Slovakia evaluate the policies is
Corruption = Monopoly + Discretionary power – Transparency*
*Klitgaard, R. Controlling Corruption. Berkeley and los Angeles, university of California Press, 1998.

9. II. phase
• Aim: • Activity:
– development of anti-corruption – meetings with local government
recommendations and particular – development of anti-corruption
rules for each of the 17 policies. recommendations built for the
particular conditions of given local
• Precondition: government
– local government can choose – methodology is also based on
priority areas (policies) for which it Klitgaard's formula, so the
would consider adoption of anti- recommendations are focused on
corruption measurements the process of transparency
increasing and decreasing of
• Output: discretionary power in particular
– report: anti-corruption policies in local government.
recommendations – inspiration also comes from the
best practises abroad

10. II. phase
Examples of best practises:
• many recommendations concern active • method of the random selection when
disclosure of information through the deciding on allocation of local
municipal web page and introduction of government social flats
electronic register for various kinds of • recommendation to conduct auction
applications when deciding about renting or selling
• strengthening protection and rules for flats
potential whistleblowers - as a • using e-auctions in public procurement
protection for employees who report • draft of the Code of Conduct
inappropriate behaviour in their office/
department. • introduction of Ethics Commissioner

11. III. phase
• Aim: • Activity:
– assistance (training, discussions, – discussions between TI and local
workshops ) with the process of government about the anti-
adopting of anti-corruption corruption recommendations
recommendation – drafts of new by-laws and
regulations adapted to municipal
• Precondition: conditions
– the will of local government to – TI assistance with implementation
change situation and implement of these regulations
recommendations into legislative – training/workshops of the elected
representatives and relevant
• Output: employees of the City Hall
– adoption of new regulations into organized by TI
municipal legislative

12. Experiences of TI Slovakia with audits
• TI Slovakia executed audits in the following
municipalities:
 Martin
- was given the UN Public Service Award in the category
“Preventing and Combating Corruption in the Public Service”
for its anti-corruption reforms
 Žiar nad Hronom
 Prievidza
 Banská Bystrica
 Bratislava-Ružinov

13. Experiences of TI Slovakia with audits
• Other experiences?

14. Summary
• The project has impact on everyone who is a part of the public life.
• After successful implementation of anti-corruption recommendation
the public can monitor, judge and react on the local administration
more efficient.
• The added value of this is that the local administration can win back
the public trust in the processes of execution of local government
administration. This, subsequently, is reflected on the public
participation in public affairs.
• From the point of view of the employees and elected representatives of
municipality, the project sets clear rules in decision-making processes.
• As the result, this limits the space for corruption behaviour.

15. Thank you for
your attention