Insights from behavioural science are increasingly making their way into integrity policymaking. A behavioural approach acknowledges that behind the policies, laws, regulations, and tools there are human beings making decisions. Sometimes, these decisions are not aligned with what policies aim to achieve, undermining their effectiveness and impact.
An effective corruption risk management system is crucial for upholding and promoting public integrity within governmental institutions. It allows government to identify, assess and mitigate integrity risks; respond to such risks efficiently; and track progress and emerging challenges.
Strengthening corruption risk management practices was a central aspect of the Slovak Republic’s Anti-Corruption Policy for 2019-2023, which includes a standard corruption risk assessment methodology for ministries and other central authorities. To support these efforts, the OECD partnered with the Corruption Prevention Department in the Government Office of the Slovak Republic to improve corruption risk management from a behavioural insights perspective. Indeed, an effective corruption risk management system is dependent on the behaviours of public officials who are in a crucial position to identify and communicate corruption risks. It is especially important for frontline employees to be alert to corruption risks, as they are typically in a better position than managers and other stakeholders to identify them. Understanding the behaviours, biases and motivations of these public officials is thus important for fine-tuning the implementation of corruption risk management.
This report contributes to the OECD’s efforts to help countries effectively implement the OECD Recommendation on Public Integrity. In addition, it builds on the OECD report Behavioural Insights for Public Integrity: Harnessing the Human Factor to Counter Corruption and applies the OECD´s BASIC methodology for applications of behavioural science to public policy. This report is part of broader support by the OECD to improve public integrity in the Slovak Republic. Based on findings from a survey experiment, the report presents the tailored behavioural recommendations to improve corruption risk management in the Slovak Republic.
The report was reviewed by the OECD Working Party of Senior Public Integrity Officials (SPIO) on 22 February 2024. It was approved by the Public Governance Committee on 20 March 2024 and prepared for publication by the Secretariat.
The report was co-financed by the EEA and Norway Grants mechanism and the Slovak Republic and implemented by the OECD.