As we write in our 2019 Annual Report, our International Centre for Asset Recovery continues to be one of the only organisations specialised in the recovery of stolen assets. Our focus is on supporting our partner countries in particularly complex cases and the introduction of new working methods and legal and investigative tools.

In this short piece published in the Annual Report, Dr Hamilton Castro, Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor in Peru, explains how the impacts of our joint work go far beyond the money recovered:

In these times of global crisis, strong and transparent management of public finances is even more essential. How governments manage their money has a real and immediate impact on peoples’ lives. It affects critical issues such as access to education and whether hospitals have enough trained staff and medical equipment.

In early April, more than 770 public officials across Peru took our latest virtual training course on public financial management (PFM). This free seven-week course is part of a programme financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to strengthen standards of PFM in 11 subnational governments.

Opening remarks and a presentation of key concepts by Oscar Solórzano at the side event “Living up to the spirit of articles 43 and 46 UNCAC” during the eighth session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, Abu Dhabi, 16-20 December 2019.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me please welcome you to the side event “Living up to the spirit of articles 43 and 46 UNCAC”.

We are happy to announce that our Public Finance Management programme in Peru has been extended for another four years, following an excellent performance in the programme’s external evaluation.

Launched in 2015 and run out of our regional office in Lima, the programme is funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). It aims to strengthen public financial management among 11 local and regional governments in Peru.

Trujillo, capital city of La Libertad region in northwestern Peru, has become the country’s 10th local government authority to develop and approve a Code of Conduct for public officials and other civil servants.

As with the other nine Codes of Conduct, it was created in a participatory manner by the local government with technical assistance from the Subnational PFM Programme of the Swiss SECO Cooperation, implemented by the Basel Institute in Peru.

PEFA, the international organisation that sets standards for measuring the performance of Public Financial Management (PFM) worldwide, has published a new version of its Volume IV Handbook on Using PEFA to support Public Financial Management improvement. The forward-looking handbook represents the first attempt to go beyond pure performance evaluation. Instead, the emphasis is on the action plans that come after the evaluation.