“Corruption is the ultimate betrayal of public trust”, stated António Guterres, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, as he was addressing the world on corruption in the context of the global health crisis of COVID-19. Since 2003, the UN has instituted the 9th of December as the International Anti-Corruption Day, to raise awareness of this scourge. In
Corruption is one of the main enablers of organised crime , allowing crime groups to take advantage of the vast amounts of money they control and the weak institutions of the countries they operate in. Corruption not only erodes the state’s services and functionality, but also makes criminal activity more profitable and attractive. Fellbab-Brown argues that “law enforcement deficiencies and physical insecurity, poor rule of law, suppression of human rights, economic poverty and social marginalisation” are all factors that make populations turn to illegality. Corruption contributes to all these factors by destabilising the political and social system and creating shortcuts that are not viable in the long term. Citizens often end up having to offer bribes in order to get access to public services, encouraging a culture of corruption. Organised crime and corruption go hand in hand and constitute not just a security problem, but have grave repercussions and consequences for governance, rule of law, and development. Organised crime groups use corruption to expand their influence and activity by infiltrating political institutions and the economy, but also social actors, as well as law enforcement. Corruption allows criminal groups to generate poverty and inequality, since corruption means public resources are diverted from sectors in need. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime addresses and criminalises corruption in article 8.
While corruption is common in EU countries, related figures in other regions of the world are much higher. This is why the Global Illicit Flows Programme (GIFP) is adopting a holistic approach that tackles the source and the factors that enable organised crime and illicit trafficking including combatting corruption.
In the context of the GIFP, all the projects engage with issues of corruption as a cross-cutting topic and projects like CRIMJUST (Strengthening Criminal Investigation and criminal justice cooperation along drug trafficking routes) more specifically provide support to the fight against corruption. Among its main components CRIMJUST supports law enforcement and other criminal justice institutions in strengthening integrity, accountability and resilience against corruption and influence of organised crime. By providing training, the project raises awareness and contributes to the fight against corruption. For example, CRIMJUST has conducted training on ethics and integrity in partner countries and in collaboration with other GIFP projects. CRIMJUST’s work also concentrates on integrity gaps in criminal justice institutions and systems of its partner countries. The programme supports, , Inspector Generals and Internal Affairs Units to detect, investigate and handle ethics violations and corruption cases thought reporting systems and disciplinary regimes. These activities aim at consolidating work with the law enforcement units of target countries. In addition, there are integrity initiatives with prosecution or judiciary in form of tailored trainings or specific assessments to increase compliance with the UN Convention against corruption on prosecutorial and judicial integrity. Implemented in partnership with Transparency International, created the Justice and Law Enforcement Accountability Dashboard (JustLead), an institutional assessment tool developed during Phase I of CRIMJUST. It is an effort that consists of assessing the situation and making recommendations to countries, but also advocating and keeping track of the progress and improvements made over time, as well as practical training and workshops. The ultimate goal is to reinforce mutual trust and confidence of criminal justice agencies in the different regions, as well as engage the active involvement of civil society organisations.
