Project Title: Strengthening Transparency and Integrity in the Civil Service. Project Number: Project Duration:

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1 Project Title: Strengthening Transparency and Integrity in the Civil Service Project Number: Project Duration: Signed with the Ministry of State for Administrative Development Project Total Amount: US$ Project Progress Report Summary The Project titled Enhancing Transparency and Integrity in the Civil Service in Egypt was the first UNDP of its kind- initiative to study and address corruption in the civil service in Egypt during the former political regime, where corruption issues could not be explicitly discussed, particularly in the government apparatus. Egypt has a plethora of both institutions and laws with a mandate to fight corruption. The main institutions include the General Prosecution Services, the Administrative Prosecution Authority, the Auditor General s Office, the Administrative Control Authority, the Prime Minister Office,, the Parliamentary Complaints Committee, the Financial Investigation Unit, the Egyptian Team for Anti-Corruption and the Transparency and Integrity Committee (TIC). With the establishment of the TIC in 2007, the Government has expressed keen interest to address corruption, enhance performance of the civil service, build trust with 1

2 citizens and improve its ranking on indicators such as the CPI. However, the large number of different, partly uncoordinated institutions with differing mandates complicates the coordination with regard to effectively and efficiently combating corruption. The establishment of TIC enabled adoption of a lead role in this in bringing different national stakeholders together. The Transparency and Integrity Committee (TIC) was established in 2007 by the decree no 86 promulgated by the Prime Minister. It is composed of 15 members, representing 3 ministries, the opposition party, civil society, the media, the private sector and institutions fighting corruption. It falls under the Ministry of State for Administrative Development. The TIC members who are appointed by the Minister of Administrative Development work on a voluntary and part-time basis. The Governance Center in the National Management Institute provides the technical services. TIC mandate was to act as an independent think tank for the Prime Minister on matters of transparency and integrity in the civil service. To date, the TIC has produced two reports. It is also working on issues, such as Egypt s obligations towards the UNCAC, the African Convention against Corruption and the development of the Arab Convention against Corruption and liaising with civil society and the media in fighting corruption. Its mandate is still evolving and it is considering possibilities of developing an Anti-Corruption Strategy for Egypt. During the past three years, the project gradually addressed and approached through its main themes- aspects of corruption in the civil service through transparency and integrity indicators. The agreed upon project lines helped the Transparency and Integrity Committee ( TIC) at the Ministry of State for Administrative Development ( MSAD) and the Governance Center ( GC) at the National management Institute in realizing the project s objectives concerning strengthening transparency and integrity in the Egyptian civil service. 2

3 Project strategy: The Project aimed at strengthening the policy formulation and advisory role of the newly established Transparency and Integrity Committee (TIC) of the Ministry of Administrative Development to guide the decision making process on the development and implementation of anti-corruption policies and standards. It directly supports two Democratic Governance key results, namely: 1.) strengthening responsive governing institutions and 2.) support national partners to implement democratic governance practices grounded in human rights, gender equality and anti-corruption. The project was predominantly supporting the government to implement the democratic governance practices grounded in the UNCAC which Egypt is committed to. Project Output: Strengthened capacity of the TIC and the Governance Center for policy advice on anti-corruption. Project Activity Results: The project enabled the Transparency and Integrity Committee through the Governance Center to achieve the following activities: 3

4 Activity Result 1: Conduct of policy analysis to strengthen the institutional framework for transparency and anti-corruption in the civil service - Conducting a study on witness and whistle blowers protection in the Egyptian penal and administrative procedural laws. - Conducting a comparative study on ombudsman systems - Conducting a study on the disciplinary responsibility of civil servants in Egypt. - Conducting a study on the framework of conflict of interest - Drafting the Civil Servants Code of Conduct - Simplifying the Egyptian National Budget and making it more transparent. - Studying and analyzing mandates and policies of official anti- corruption agencies and oversight bodies. - Studying the institutional arrangements, particularly the policy coordination between anti- corruption agencies and related ministries. - Coordination of policies between anti- corruption agencies (Central Audit Organization- Administrative Control Authority- Public Prosecution Agency- Administrative Prosecution Agency- Illicit Enrichment Agency- Financial Investigation Authority). - Policy coordination between concerned ministries: Ministry of State for Administrative Development, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Investment, Ministry of Finance. 4

5 - Drafting Transparency and Integrity reports. Activity Result 2: Conduct of evidence-based anti-corruption assessments - Governance literature, indicators and some case studies mapped. - A questionnaire was designed to measure citizens satisfaction pertaining government service delivery. - Measures were developed to evaluate citizens complaint handling by the government. - A methodology and a working cycle developed to handle corruption complaints - Assessing anti- corruption efforts through good governance indicators: o Introducing the relationship between achieving good governance and combating corruption through various studies. - Analyzing the anti- corruption legal framework: strengths and weaknesses. - Assessing Egypt s compliance to UNCAC (chapters 2-3-4) Gap Analysis conducted pertaining chapter 2. - Assessing Egypt s commitments to UNCAC chapter 5 pertaining restoring stolen assets. - Assessing Transparency and Integrity in public procurement, applying code of conducts, information disclosure, accountability in the civil service, protecting witnesses and whistle blowers. ( Gap Analysis). 5

6 Activity Result 3: Provision of technical assistance and coordination for the development of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy - Drafting an Anti- corruption strategy outline - Studying the Egyptian Administrative Anti- Corruption Strategy drafted in Capacity building on Community Compact for designing an anti- corruption strategy. - Conducting comparative studies on anti- corruption strategies. - Studying anti-corruption policies in the education sector and the private sector. - Engaging Egyptian official oversight sights and monitoring agencies in benefiting from regional and international best practices in drafting anticorruption strategies. Activity Result 4: Strengthened Knowledge Management in the area of prevention and combat of corruption - Availing and disseminating anti-corruption knowledge Corruption (through capacity building workshops, publications) in various areas: Development- Human Rights- Public Service Delivery- Sectorial Democratic Governance with UNDP- UNODC- AU- OECD- ARADO- Arab Parliamentarians Against Corruption- CARE- Regional Anti- Corruption Commissions ) 6

7 - Availing and facilitating capacity building opportunities to exchange knowledge for official anti- corruption agencies, concerned ministries and civil society organizations in themes related to sectorial corruption/ UNCAC s self - assessment mechanism/ UNCAC s review mechanism/ asset recovery/ corruption measurements/ COSP proceedings/ drafting anti-corruption strategies/ investigative journalism/ anti-corruption best practices and initiatives. Activity Result 5: Enhanced awareness and advocacy for anti-corruption - Anti- Corruption modules were developed in the areas of: o Module on Complying with UNCAC ( Chapter 3 & 5) o Module on preventing and measuring corruption o Module on handling and managing citizens complaints o Module on Asset Recovery procedures o Module on criteria for monitoring government service delivery - Producing booklets, flyers ( Do & Don t ACT- Resist Corruption and Hold on to Your Rights- Against Corruption) - Producing Media productions ( Hold On To Your Rights film - ) to raise the civil servants and the public awareness on corruption aspects and dangers in sectors ( housing health). - Conducting the anti- corruption day as an opportunity of awareness raising on the cost of corruption and prevention policies among the different 7

8 stakeholders. ( raising the public awareness on sectorial corruption: education- the relationship between democratic transition and combating corruption) - Develop the web- site of the Asia Middle East dialogue on exchanging anti corruption knowledge and best practices. Activity Result 6: Institutional capacity of the Governance Center developed - Assessing the capacities of The Governance Center (GC) is the technical unit of the Transparency and Integrity Committee (TIC) (GC Remediation and Implementation Plan Framework ) - Organizing a workshop on best practices in combating corruption in Asian and Middle East countries in the framework of the Asia Middle East Dialogue AMED. - Building the capacities of the Governance Center s staff to realize TIC mandate and objectives in the following areas: o Drafting anti- corruption strategies o Performance Budgeting o Combating sectorial corruption o UNCAC s review mechanism o Results based management o Project financial management 8

9 - Availing opportunities for TIC members and officials in anti- corruption agencies to address Egypt s experience, challenges and needs in anticorruption areas. - Supporting GC with anti- corruption material ( studies- strategies- best practices ). - Enabling GC to give consultancies and capacity building in various anticorruption areas. - Enabling GC to improve and complement the logistic requirements to accomplish the projects activities ( PCs- Printers- data show..etc.) Activity Result 7: Project Management Unit is operational - Project management assigned - Project accountant assigned - Project management requirements procured Project achieved its output by 90%. Note: Attached are the following: - A detailed activities plan - The CDRs for the project period A fixed assets table 9