Zero tolerance to corruption, fraud and other mismanagement of funds are guiding principles for the EEA and Norway Grants. To help improve risk management, the EEA and Norway Grants entered into a partnership with Transparency International in 2011. Transparency International (TI) is a global civil society organisation that promotes transparency and fights corruption.
Corruption survey
In the EEA and Norway Grants’ beneficiary countries surveyed by Transparency International, between 2 (Spain) and 26 (Lithuania) per cent of the respondents said that they have paid a bribe when accessing public services and institutions in the last 12 months. Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2013 is a public opinion survey of 114,000 people in 107 countries. It shows corruption is widespread.
Cooperation with Transparency International
The EEA and Norway Grants have a three-year cooperation agreement with Transparency International where special attention is given to corruption risk linked to the grant management processes in the beneficiary countries. Such cooperation also aims to assist countries with their own risk assessments and provide advice on how to tackle corruption.
Under this cooperation agreement, the EEA and Norway Grants and Transparency International organise an annual seminar related to risk management, good governance and anti-corruption. The theme of this year’s seminar is ‘Managing Risk for Results & Fighting Corruption’, taking place in Oslo on 24-25 September 2013.
Find out more about our cooperation with Transparency International.