Peru faces significant public integrity challenges. In 2024, the Comptroller General estimated that corruption and misconduct resulted in losses of approximately PEN 24.3 billion (around USD 7 billion) in 2023, equivalent to 2.8 percent of GDP. Subnational governments accounted for around 44 percent of these losses.

The main risks include manipulated procurement, overvaluation of works and services, improper payments and unsupported consultancy contracts. Another was weaknesses in internal controls and transparency, particularly in public procurement and budget execution processes.

In response, the Peruvian state established the Integrity Model, a five-stage tool designed to guide state entities in implementing anti- corruption frameworks based on international standards and best practices. The goal is to strengthen a culture of integrity and improve the capacity to prevent and respond to unethical or corrupt practices. The Preventive Capacity Index assesses the effectiveness of its implementation.

Yet formal rules and requirements, such as those of the Integrity Model, do not automatically translate into effective corruption prevention. Many subnational governments face difficulties turning these rules into concrete actions that become part of their work, often because of unclear roles and responsibilities and weak follow-up.

These gaps are particularly significant in territories with limited institutional capacity and complex development challenges.

The programme developed an approach to make integrity part of everyday public financial management and decision-making. It focused on entities in the early stages of adopting and implementing the Integrity Model that also scored low on preventive capacity.

The programme combined several forms of support:

• Evidence-based diagnostics: identifying the main institutional gaps and priority actions, based on the results of the Preventive Capacity Index evaluation.
• Bringing actors together: working together with authorities and technical teams to develop integrity programmes aligned with national requirements and define implementation roadmaps.
• Developing concrete plans and tools: helping institutions define clear responsibilities, deadlines, indicators and follow-up mechanisms, and translating regulatory and technical requirements into processes and tools that public officials could use in their daily work.
• Ongoing technical assistance: helping officials address implementation challenges as they arose.

This approach aimed both to strengthen institutional ownership and to build lasting capacities that would endure beyond the programme’s conclusion.

The programme contributed to significant improvements in the supported regional governments’ capacities to plan, implement and monitor measures to prevent corruption risks, according to their scores in the official evaluations of the Integrity Model.

Even in complex institutional contexts, where serious issues existed at the outset, corruption prevention capacity saw a positive change thanks to the combination of technical assistance, institutional commitment and a practical approach to implementation.

Beyond improving their Preventive Capacity Index scores, the programme left these institutions with methodologies, skills and practical tools that can be applied further, across other subnational governments and public entities. These resources aim to support sustainable change towards an institutional culture focused on transparency, risk prevention and continuous improvement in public financial management.

The experience demonstrates that subnational governments can strengthen their preventive capacity through targeted support, while generating methodologies and tools that can be adapted elsewhere in Peru and internationally.

For Switzerland and other development partners, this experience offers value on three levels.

1. Impact strengthening public institutions responsible for managing public resources and delivering essential services to people in regions facing significant development challenges.
2. Knowledge generating tested methodologies and practical tools for strengthening integrity in subnational governments with different levels of capacity and institutional maturity.
3. Global public goods contributing to corruption prevention, stronger democratic governance and more transparent and efficient public financial management.

For governments and development partners seeking to strengthen corruption prevention at subnational level, the model offers a practical starting point: work with existing national frameworks, identify implementation gaps, build local capacity and provide sustained technical support until integrity becomes part of everyday public management.

• About public financial management

• Programa GFP Subnacional website