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Key Recommendations
The combination of national and international pressures is creating fresh opportunities for curbing corruption across Asia and the Pacific. How can the countries best seize the moment? Action has to come from many directions – from governments, civil society organizations, the media and private business working together. Although the appropriate measures for tackling corruption will depend on national circumstances, there are a number of common options. The Report has identified three areas to consider for prioritizing – the police, social services, and natural resources.
Here is a seven-point agenda for action:
- Join with international efforts – All countries in the region should join the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, and the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative.
- Establish benchmarks of quality – To judge their success, governments can use international benchmarks – for anticorruption agencies, for example, and for the national media.
- Strengthen the civil service – Some governments could raise salaries, but all should be able to ensure merit-based recruitment and promotion – along with more rigorous systems of control. Governments and donors will clearly need to invest much more in local government.
- Encourage codes of conduct in the private sector – Among the professions, the most critical codes are those of lawyers and accountants.
- Establish the right to information – All countries in the region could enact laws on the right to information – and encourage public officials, the media and civil society organizations to take advantage of this right.
- Exploit new technology –Information technology and e-governance offer fresh opportunities to break the information monopoly of corrupt officials.
- Support citizen action – Local governments should publish the basic information on contracts to facilitate citizen auditing; individuals can do much as citizens and consumers, including keeping themselves informed and networked.
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