The Basel Institute on Governance and the Centre for Anti-Corruption Studies (CEA) of the University of San Andrés, Argentina convened a private-sector roundtable in Buenos Aires on 4 October 2018.
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Impact Story: The High Level Reporting Mechanism
This document addresses the High Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM) and its contributions to fairer market conditions in Colombia, where it is being piloted in connection with the public procurement process for the 4G Road Project. Using a Public Private Partnership approach, the 4G Road Project will be carried out over the course of seven years, completing 8,000 km of roads at an investment of US$25 billion.
The role of the HLRM will be to ensure that the program is less vulnerable to corruption and bribery risks.
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High-level reporting: overcoming extortion
To overcome corruption it is essential to combat extortion as well as bribery. There has been steady progress in curbing bribery through national laws implementing the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.
Extortion has not received comparable attention. Neither the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention nor the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the most widely enforced anti-corruption law, covers extortion. Extortion is covered by the UN Convention against Corruption, but implementation of that convention is still at an early stage.
Earlier today the Government of Panama jointly with the Basel Institute on Governance announced the establishment of the country’s first High Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM).
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Designing a High Level Reporting Mechanism for Business - A Guidance Note for Governments
This document provides general guidance to governments on how to develop and manage a High Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM).
The HLRM is a tool that can:
This report discusses the different contexts and processes through which a High Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM) has been designed and implemented in Colombia, Ukraine, Panama and Argentina, as well as initial interest in the HLRM model in Peru.
Its aim is to understand the specificities of each case and draw lessons applicable to future projects in other countries, whilst respecting the commitment to develop an HLRM that takes account of the specific country’s context.
The responsibility for governments to address bribe solicitation derives from internationally recognised anticorruption standards all of which prohibit the ‘demand side’ of bribery, namely, the solicitation by a public official of an undue advantage.