Combatting High-level Corruption in Eastern Europe

1. Recommendations

Abstract

This chapter resumes the key recommendations of this report.

1.1. Recommendations for governments

Definition of high-level corruption

• Elaborate and introduce a definition of high-level corruption if addressing it is prioritised or outlined in the mandate of criminal justice anti-corruption institutions, in alignment with the respective policy or mandate objectives to ensure its common understanding among all the stakeholders involved.

Lack of prioritising the fight against high-level corruption on the policy level

• Carry out problem analysis to identify the enabling factors of high-level corruption, and informed by the findings, develop targeted, strategic objectives to counter high-level corruption in the national anti-corruption policy and/or documents defining sectoral measures to combat corruption. Consider OECD standards for conducting problem analysis’ and developing SMART objectives in line with the OECD Recommendation on Public Integrity, OECD Public Integrity Handbook and OECD Public Integrity Indicators.

• Ensure that efforts to combat high-level corruption are aligned, where appropriate, with strategies targeting oligarchic influence and organised crime.

Specialised anti-corruption institutions, their independence, autonomy and jurisdiction

• Consider assigning the investigation, prosecution and adjudication of high-level corruption to specialised bodies, units, or groups of staff that have the necessary expertise and clearly establish their mandate and the responsibility to deal with high-level corruption cases as their main focus of activity.

• Ensure that experts from civil society and/or international experts play an important role in creating such specialised anti-corruption institutions and that the work of those institutions is subject to functioning mechanisms of public oversight.

• Ensure that the mandate of such specialised anti-corruption institutions is precisely formulated to avoid misallocation of their resources towards mid-level or petty corruption and provide for the possibility of transferring proceedings not related to high-level corruption to other institutions.

• Ensure that the exclusive jurisdiction of specialised anti-corruption bodies over high-level corruption cases is respected and that their cases are transferred to other entities only in exceptional circumstances, based on legally established reasons, and following clear criteria.

• Ensure that guarantees for the independence of the anti-corruption institutions provided in the law are aligned with anti-corruption international standards and best practices.

• Ensure that the leadership of specialised anti-corruption institutions is appointed transparently and based on merits, with their tenure in office protected by law and respected in practice.

• Ensure that the procedure for pre-term dismissal of the leadership of specialised anti-corruption institutions is clear, transparent, and objective. Envisage in the law special guarantees to protect the leadership of such bodies from arbitrary pre-term dismissal.

• Ensure specialised anti-corruption institutions are allocated sufficient human, financial, technical, material, and other resources and, in particular, that the human resource demand for detectives, investigators, prosecutors, and experts supporting criminal proceedings is considered in alignment with the institution's priorities.

• Ensure that the remuneration of specialised anti-corruption staff is established by the law and proportionate to the importance of their functions.

• Ensure that the law provides for physical protection measures for the staff of anti-corruption institutions and their family members and that these protection measures are to be provided by the anti-corruption institution itself and not by a different body.

Whistleblowers protection and reporting

• Introduce an effective whistleblower protection framework, in particular, by promoting a favourable environment for whistleblowing, protecting whistleblowers in practice, and providing them with a broad range of remedies to compensate consequences of retaliation, including financial compensation for economic and social losses incurred by whistleblowers.

• Establish or strengthen the institutional framework for whistleblower protection and provide it with adequate resources and specialised staff.

• Create online channels for reporting corruption, and consider allowing, where appropriate, anonymous reporting.

• Consider introducing incentives for reporting corruption.

Supporting the role of media in detecting and fighting against high-level corruption

• Provide a favourable environment for journalists, by ensuring their safety and pro-actively promoting media freedom and media pluralism.

• Ensure that all media and investigative journalists' reports on corruption are among the formally envisaged sources for detecting corruption requiring an official reaction from law enforcement authorities.

Asset declarations as a detection tool

• Ensure that necessary resources are provided to anti-corruption institutions responsible for processing asset declarations.

Confiscation and asset recovery

• Continue enhancing confiscation regimes by introducing and applying all confiscation measures with respect to instrumentalities and proceeds of corruption in line with international anti-corruption standards and best practices, including, confiscation of derivative (indirect) proceeds of corruption offences, confiscation of the assets transferred to informed third parties, value-based confiscation, and confiscation of converted or mixed proceeds and profits therefrom.

• Consider introducing non-conviction based confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of corruption offences and autonomous extended confiscation of unjustified assets.

• Ensure prompt and efficient actual enforcement of confiscation orders, particularly in cases of high-level corruption and related money laundering of corrupt proceeds.

• Consider introducing post-conviction investigations for purposes of tracing, seizing and further confiscation of proceeds from high-level corruption.

Liability of legal persons

• Ensure that national legislation on corporate liability regimes is aligned with international instruments and best practices.

Inter-agency co-operation

• While respecting the independence of specialised anti-corruption bodies, ensure horizontal “the whole of government” mechanisms are in place to facilitate coherent decision-making, communication and information sharing among all the relevant institutions.

• Ensure that there are no legal obstacles to concluding interagency memorandums for co-operation in the field of criminal investigation, particularly, high-level corruption, and encourage their effective implementation by including the signing of such memorandums within criminal policy priorities.

International co-operation

• Build the capacity of specialised anti-corruption institutions and their staff to carry out international co-operation with foreign counterparts directly, including by providing them with sufficiently specialised human resources such as prosecutors assigned to deal with international co-operation, staffed specialists and translators, and sufficient financial resources for carrying out foreign missions, expenses for international mail, and high-quality and confidential communication equipment.

• Consider mandating relevant specialised anti-corruption institutions to undertake international legal co-operation measures independently. Where such a possibility already exists in legislation, remove any obstacles to the proper implementation of these functions by specialised anti-corruption bodies and eliminate any unnecessary formal requirements.

Analytical work

• Ensure in practice the full, direct and free access of anti-corruption institutions to all state-owned registers and databases necessary for the effective detection and investigation of corruption, as well as provide organisational, human, IT, expert and financial capacity to use these databases effectively. Provide regular training for relevant staff of anti-corruption bodies on the effective use of databases and state registries for the purposes of analytical work and investigation of high-level corruption.

• Take measures to create the register of bank accounts and give anti-corruption institutions investigating high-level corruption direct access to it.

• Ensure anti-corruption agencies are provided with modern IT infrastructure, modern analytical tools and technologies that facilitate data mining, pattern recognition, and visualisation, empowering investigators to uncover complex corruption networks.

• Develop and implement electronic case management systems for criminal proceedings.

Statute of limitations

• Ensure there is an adequately long statute of limitations period for high-level corruption and consider increasing the statute of limitations for prosecuting such cases or calculating it only until a certain procedural stage (e.g., bringing charges or submitting the case to the court) or eliminating it altogether.

Timeframes of pre-trial investigations

• Ensure that the pre-trial investigation is carried out within a reasonable timeframe, taking into consideration the specific circumstances of the case. This assessment should include factors such as the scale and intricacy of the case, the number of procedural measures, the number of victims and witnesses, the necessity of forensic examinations, and the acquisition of conclusions.

• If the period of pre-trial investigation is restricted, ensure that it begins after the notice of suspicion or a similar procedural stage and does not impede the handling of high-level corruption cases.

Immunities of high-level officials

• Undertake comprehensive legislative reforms to establish standardised and transparent procedures for lifting the immunity of high-level public officials for corruption-related offences based on clear and objective criteria, and including specific timelines to expedite the process.

• Undertake comprehensive legislative reforms to establish clear and specific criteria for lifting the immunity of high-level public officials and develop standardised and transparent procedures for doing so, outlining specific timelines to expedite the process.

• Strengthen the independence and authority of anti-corruption agencies, allowing them to initiate lifting the immunity of high-level public officials before the decision-making body without unnecessary intermediaries.

Building anti-corruption coalitions

• Promote a whole-of-society culture of public integrity, partnering with the private sector, civil society and individuals, in particular through reinforcing cooperation between anti-corruption institutions and the private sector, civil society and the business community to tackle high-level corruption.

1.2. Recommendations for anti-corruption authorities

Priorities in the work of specialised anti-corruption institutions

• Implement a policy of prioritising the work on detecting, investigating, and prosecuting the most serious high-level corruption offences, such as those involving PEPs, incumbent members of parliament and government, their deputies, high-level judges and prosecutors and law enforcement officials, as well as other top-level public officials.

Harnessing public relations strategies

• Encourage the cultivation of professional relationships with journalists and media outlets by responding promptly to media inquiries, providing accurate information, and organising regular press conferences to address queries and concerns.

• Ensure the creation of public relations departments, or at least the appointment of individual specialists responsible for public relations, and provide them with sufficient resources. Invest in the training of communication professionals within those agencies and provide staff with the skills necessary for effective media relations, crisis communication, and public engagement.

• Develop and implement an external communications strategy, which would provide for the proactive and regular dissemination of information on the main procedural acts carried out in all high-level corruption cases of public interest through press releases, briefings, and official statements, and by designing a robust crisis communication plan to effectively manage challenges during times of increased scrutiny or controversy, and by establishing mechanisms for public feedback and engagement, and conduct regular evaluations of their media strategy.

• Develop a user-friendly and informative official website and ensure that it contains up-to-date information on the institution’s structure, ongoing investigations, reports, and contact details. Consider offering resources in multiple languages for broader accessibility.

• Establish active profiles on prominent social media platforms to share updates, educational content, and engage with the public, and fully use social media platforms to reach a wider audience.

• Monitor public perception regularly through surveys, focus groups, and social media analytics, using the insights gained to adjust communication strategies, address misconceptions, and enhance public trust.

Attracting and retaining specialised and motivated staff

• Introduce best practices in merit-based recruitment and talent management to attract, develop, and retain skilled staff motivated to effectively carry out the anti-corruption institution's mission.

• Consider introducing an independent ombudsman to review employee and external groups' concerns about institutional workplace culture and organisational concerns occurring within anti-corruption institutions.

• Introduce periodic employee surveys to monitor changes in personnel morale and level of engagement, identify areas of employee concern within the institution, and maintain an open dialogue between employees and the institution's leadership.

• Regularly review the policies and practices aimed at maintaining high morale and employee motivation.

Supporting the role of media in detecting and fighting against high-level corruption

• Ensure that no public allegations of high-level corruption are left without a formal reaction and that all such allegations are investigated or justified decisions are made not to open an investigation.

• Implement systematic and thorough media monitoring to promptly identify and investigate potential high-level corruption cases.

Whistleblowers protection and reporting

• Create online channels for reporting corruption, and consider allowing, where appropriate, anonymous reporting.

Asset declarations as a detection tool

• Prioritise verification of asset declarations of high-ranking officials to identify evidence of high-level corruption and focus on investigating high-level corruption based on the findings.

• Enhance the specialised training for staff involved in processing asset declarations and develop guidelines describing typologies of concealing assets methods and procedures for their investigation. Additionally, develop special guidelines for processing asset declarations to uncover high-level corruption.

• Enhance co-operation between specialists of anti-corruption institutions responsible for asset declarations and their counterparts from other anti-corruption, financial monitoring, asset recovery and asset management agencies, for example, through secondment to other agencies, appointing liaison officers, and conducting joint training.

• Establish formal and informal co-operation with foreign counterparts to acquire information about the assets of public officials from foreign jurisdictions.

Confiscation and asset recovery

• Build the capacities of investigators, prosecutors, and judges to efficiently apply modern and more sophisticated confiscation tools and asset recovery measures.

• Ensure the collection of comprehensive statistics on assets seized and confiscated in corruption cases, in particular those related to high-level corruption cases, and ensure that such statistics are collected by types of crimes; by mandate; by form of confiscation; by beneficial owners; by confiscation orders issued by final court decisions and by confiscation orders which were executed in practice; and specify whether the assets were seized or confiscated domestically or in a foreign jurisdiction.

Liability of legal persons

• Ensure the effective enforcement of legal persons' liability for corruption offences, in particular, in relation to high-level corruption cases, including by providing training, ensuring such cases are dealt with as a priority and are included in the individual KPIs of prosecutors and investigators, and enhancing knowledge sharing and peer exchanges with foreign counterparts.

• Develop or update guidelines for investigating crimes committed by legal persons to address the most challenging issues related to enforcing corporate liability for corruption offences.

International co-operation

• Consider organising English learning courses for staff and defining fluency in foreign language(s) as an advantage in the selection procedures for prosecutors and investigators who are supposed to work on cases involving co-operation with foreign jurisdictions. Organise training activities for prosecutors and investigators on international co-operation, including best practices of using modern co-operation tools and asset recovery mechanisms.

• Analyse which foreign jurisdictions would be the most relevant for cases falling within the mandate of specialised anti-corruption institutions and conclude interagency co-operation agreements with the foreign authorities on the exchange of data, experience, information, and other types of non-MLA related co-operation. Encourage greater co-operation with foreign counterparts in practice, including consultations, onsite visits, and networking with foreign liaison officers and contact points.

• Elaborate and adopt the guidelines on international co-operation for prosecutors and investigators and develop and adopt templates for interagency (police-to-police) requests for co-operation as well as for MLA requests in high-level corruption cases.

• Make full use of a general policy of informal co-operation (interagency, police-to-police), including through FIUs where appropriate, prior to sending a formal MLA request. Introduce the regular practice of consultations with foreign counterparts regarding the preparation and execution of requests in the most complex cases of high-profile corruption, as well as an automatic system for monitoring the deadlines for the execution of requests and follow-up.

• Ensure the implementation in practice of relevant modern international legal co-operation practices and tools, including but not limited to direct channels of communications; JITSs; interviews via video and telephone conference; the spontaneous exchange of information; the use of electronic tools for sending co-operation or MLA requests; cross-border surveillance, controlled delivery, covert investigations; asset recovery.

Analytical work

• Consider implementing tools to conceal data searches and access to registers and databases.

• Establish specialised units tasked with analytical work and ensure that these units are comprised of specialised staff proficient in data analysis, financial forensics, and intelligence gathering and ensure. Actively recruit professionals with backgrounds in data science, criminology, finance, and other relevant fields to enhance the diversity of in-house expertise.

• Ensure that these specialised units conduct proactive analysis focusing on the detection of specific cases of corruption through analytical methods, including big data analysis, other advanced analytics methods, OSINT, and provide analytical support for criminal investigations, including by conducting or supporting financial investigations.

• Provide ongoing comprehensive training programs for anti-corruption personnel, focusing on analytical techniques, financial investigation, and the use of advanced tools and technologies.

• Foster collaboration between anti-corruption institutions, law enforcement agencies, and relevant stakeholders to share best practices, methodologies, and intelligence and establish platforms for knowledge sharing.

• Strengthen partnerships with international organisations, agencies, and anti-corruption bodies to leverage global expertise, receive training support, and stay informed about the latest and most advanced analytical tools and methods.