infonet-economy

Project subscribed within the The Global Programme against Corruption (GPAC) - Centre for International Crime Prevention (CICP) - United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.

A preparatory assistance project was launched in November 2001. Based on the recommendations contained in the Preparatory Assistance Report, which was completed in May 2002, GPAC elaborated a project entitled "Strengthening Local Government Institutions in the Fight Against Corruption." The aim of this project is to strengthen the rule of law at the sub-national and national levels by increasing the integrity of local governments and strengthening their prosecutorial capacities.

The project was signed in July 2002. After several delays, mainly due to the 2002 national elections in Colombia, the project was launched in February 2003. So far, the project established anti-corruption action plans covering the executive, legislative and judicial domains in the Ibague, Manizales and Pasto local governments. It also created broad-based Local Steering Committees in each of the local government jurisdictions with the mandate to support the national integrity system and to co-ordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the local action plans. It is further planned to enhance social control in the legislative, executive and judicial domains within the three local government jurisdictions through the establishment of Social Control Boards and to increase the technical knowledge and expertise of the Presidential Programme against Corruption.

The project lessons learnt in the three pilot municipalities will be shared at a national conference aiming at replicating the activities in other Colombian municipalities and in other Andean States.