The UN Convention against Corruption requires that States designate a body or bodies to coordinate prevention and enforcement measures. This study explores how such institutional arrangements might look, and provides some lessons learned from existing models. A readable, informative resource for practitioners.

Institutional Arrangements to Combat Corruption: A Comparative Study

The 2003 UN Convention Against Corruption requires the establishment of preventative anti-corruption bodies and specialized anti-corruption law enforcement bodies (or one body carrying out both). This publication provides an overview of the different models for anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) used in various countries, and looks at their advantages and disadvantages. One of its main conclusions is that whether there is an ACA or not, a key problem in practice is the interaction or effectiveness of other institutions engaged in fighting corruption, such as the prosecutor’s office, auditor-general and courts, and the study devotes an entire chapter to the problem of coordination. In the second part, 13 country briefs provide an excellent summary of the anti-corruption frameworks (and their effectiveness) in countries ranging from Singapore to Tanzania.

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