Russian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have repeatedly cited corruption as the main factor hindering their growth. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Russian entrepreneurs paid bribes for certain extralegal activities to secure an advantage over competitors, to induce bureaucrats to overlook infractions of the law, or to speed various regulatory or licensing processes. In the past several years, however, the dynamic has shifted radically, according to local experts who study the issue closely.

Integrity Pacts are a tool developed by Transparency International to facilitate greater civil society oversight of public procurement processes and thereby increase transparency and reduce opportunities for corruption. After two decades of experience, this report reviews the experiences of working with this tool as a learning process in order to help further improve and strengthen the tool and broaden its application into the future.

An international workshop held at Loughborough University on 30th March 2005 provided a venue to further discuss concrete steps for implementing a research project on Integrity Pacts. 

Specifically, the objectives of the workshop were:

The Integrity Pact was first introduced in the 1990s and since then has been applied across the world. A revival in 2015, including the implementation of a pilot project across 11 countries in the European Union, enabled a further update of the approach and for further lessons to emerge. These lessons include a better understanding of where the Pact might be applied to best effect as well as lessons on the internal workings of the Integrity Pact. It was on this basis that this guide was developed.

Healthcare and public procurement both suffer from high levels of corruption and the point at which they converge, procurement within healthcare, is an acute vulnerability that is routinely exploited. But governments and civil society organisations are now taking action to protect the lives of citizens by implementing open contracting.

This handbook by Transparency International aims to show busy decision-makers how significant progress can be made in tackling corruption in defence and security.

It presents 20 reform measures based on recent experiences, both of Transparency International (TI) and of governments engaged in developing new approaches.

This guide by Transparency International provides government officials, businesses and civil society with a practical introduction to the risks of corruption in public procurement. It outlines key principles and minimum standards which, when respected, can protect public contracting from corruption.

This article sets out the experience of Transparency International (TI) in fighting corruption worldwide in the water sector. It focuses on identifying the sources of corruption in the sector and the available toolkits (best practice) for combating it.

Case studies from Cambodia, Japan, Colombia and Pakistan are used to illustrate some of the major points.