A Governance Diagnostic (GD)1 analyzes and recommend actions for addressing systemic corruption vulnerabilities and strengthening integrity & governance in IMF member countries.
GDs examine the severity of corruption vulnerabilities in a country across the six core state functions of fiscal governance, central bank governance and operations, financial sector oversight, rule of law, market regulation, and AML-CFT. GDs also assess the effectiveness of anti-corruption legal and institutional frameworks. Following the analysis, GDs propose prioritized and sequenced advice on systematically addressing the vulnerabilities.
A GD is voluntary for both, a member country and the IMF, and is an IMF capacity development activity. Initiated on request from authorities and subject to resource availability, IMF staff discuss the scope and timing of delivering a GD up front with the authorities. At times, a call for a GD may arise during IMF lending and surveillance activities, and remains a voluntary exercise in such cases.
GDs are conducted through a series of stages, including a scoping mission, main mission, and desk work. During the scoping mission, IMF staff frame the remit of the main mission and reach an agreement with the authorities on the focus areas. The main mission, which follows the scoping mission, is centered on assessing the substantive governance weaknesses and corruption vulnerabilities within core state functions. This phase concludes with the production of a comprehensive report that outlines the findings and recommendations.
Genuine cooperation between IMF staff and authorities is essential for a successful GD, requiring the authorities’ commitment to constructively organize missions and provide timely access to all necessary information.
GDs are guided by the IMF’s 2018 Framework on Enhanced Engagement on Governance.
[1] In some cases, referred to as Governance Diagnostic Assessment or Governance and Corruption Diagnostic
