{
  "title": "Corruption and COVID-19",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, July 28, 2020",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/28/blog-corruption-and-covid-19",
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  "summary": "Corruption is defined as \"the abuse of public office for private gain.\"",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Overview: why corruption matters more during the pandemic",
      "content": "- Corruption is defined as \"the abuse of public office for private gain.\"\n- The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of stronger governance for three reasons:\n  - Governments around the world are playing a bigger role in the economy to combat the pandemic and provide economic lifelines to people and firms, which \"increases opportunities for corruption.\"\n  - As public finances worsen, countries need to prevent tax evasion and the waste and loss of funds caused by corruption in public spending.\n  - Crises test people’s trust in government and institutions; ethical behavior becomes more salient when medical services are in high demand—evidence of corruption could undermine a country’s ability to respond, deepen the economic impact, and threaten political and social cohesion.\n- IMF message to governments: \"spend whatever you need but keep the receipts, because we don’t want accountability to be lost in the process.\""
    },
    {
      "heading": "IMF operational response during the crisis",
      "content": "- Emergency financing and governance safeguards:\n  - In lending work, the IMF provided quick disbursements to meet urgent needs while including enhanced governance measures to track COVID-19 related spending.\n  - Borrowing countries committed to:\n    - (i) undertake and publish independent ex-post audits of crisis-related spending; and\n    - (ii) publish crisis-related procurement contracts on the government’s website, including identifying the companies awarded the contract and their beneficial owners.\n  - The IMF ensured that emergency resources are subject to the IMF’s Safeguards Assessment policy."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Longer-term governance and anti-corruption efforts",
      "content": "- The IMF’s enhanced framework (adopted in 2018) aimed to make IMF work with countries more candid, evenhanded, and effective; this laid the foundation for the COVID-19 policy and lending response.\n- Key highlights from a recent staff analysis assessing progress:\n  - The IMF \"speak[s] more candidly and in-depth about governance issues with countries.\"\n  - Text mining analysis findings:\n    - Governance-related references more than doubled in staff reports in the 18 months after the IMF approved the framework, compared with 2017.\n    - In 2019, the IMF discussed governance with countries four times more than the average over the prior ten years.\n  - Surveillance examples cited:\n    - Central bank governance and operations in Liberia.\n    - Financial sector oversight in Moldova.\n    - The anti-corruption framework in Mexico.\n  - Fund staff are proposing more concrete governance and anti-corruption recommendations.\n  - IMF-supported lending programs now include specific conditionality related to governance and anti-corruption reforms, with governance improvements being a core objective of many programs.\n  - Technical assistance and training have been stepped up to help countries improve governance in areas such as:\n    - tax administration,\n    - expenditure oversight,\n    - fiscal transparency,\n    - financial sector oversight,\n    - anti-corruption institutions,\n    - asset declarations for senior officials.\n  - Governance diagnostic missions to a dozen countries provide detailed analysis of governance weaknesses based on legal frameworks and propose prioritized solutions."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Transnational corruption assessments and international cooperation",
      "content": "- Ten advanced economies have participated in voluntary assessments of their national frameworks to limit opportunities for transnational corruption:\n  - Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.\n- Purpose of these IMF-conducted assessments:\n  - Determine the degree to which a country (1) criminalizes and prosecutes bribery of foreign public officials; and (2) prevents foreign officials from concealing corrupt proceeds in its own financial system or domestic economy.\n- The IMF strongly encourages member countries to volunteer for such coverage in its annual economic health checks."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Policy implications and recommendations",
      "content": "- Curbing corruption requires:\n  - government ownership of reforms,\n  - international cooperation,\n  - a joint effort with civil society and the private sector,\n  - political will and assiduous implementation of reforms over months and years.\n- The crisis will sharpen the IMF’s focus on governance in the years ahead because of the pandemic’s devastating effects and costs for people and economies.\n- Closing remark: \"If ever there was a time for anti-corruption reforms, it is now.\"\n\nVitor Gaspar, Martin Mühleisen, Rhoda Weeks-Brown — July 28, 2020\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Box 1. the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak\n  - Box 1. the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Box 1. the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\n References\n\n- عربي\n- https://www.imf.org/zh/News/Articles/2020/07/20/blog-the-covid-19-gender-gap\n- 日本語\n- Português\n- increases opportunities for corruption.\n- corruption in public spending\n- corruption\n- spend whatever you need but keep the receipts\n- Safeguards Assessment\n- framework\n- staff analysis\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/28/blog-corruption-and-covid-19"
    }
  ],
  "bullets": [
    "[Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/28/blog-corruption-and-covid-19/index.md)",
    "[Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/28/blog-corruption-and-covid-19/index.json)",
    "[Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2020/07/28/blog-corruption-and-covid-19/bundle-manifest.json)",
    "Authors: Vitor Gaspar, Martin Mhleisen, Rhoda Weeks-Brown",
    "Published: July 28, 2020",
    "Corruption is defined as \"the abuse of public office for private gain.\"",
    "The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of stronger governance for three reasons:",
    "IMF message to governments: \"spend whatever you need but keep the receipts, because we don’t want accountability to be lost in the process.\"",
    "Emergency financing and governance safeguards:",
    "The IMF’s enhanced framework (adopted in 2018) aimed to make IMF work with countries more candid, evenhanded, and effective; this laid the foundation for the COVID-19 policy and lending response.",
    "Key highlights from a recent staff analysis assessing progress:",
    "Ten advanced economies have participated in voluntary assessments of their national frameworks to limit opportunities for transnational corruption:",
    "Purpose of these IMF-conducted assessments:",
    "The IMF strongly encourages member countries to volunteer for such coverage in its annual economic health checks.",
    "Curbing corruption requires:",
    "The crisis will sharpen the IMF’s focus on governance in the years ahead because of the pandemic’s devastating effects and costs for people and economies.",
    "Closing remark: \"If ever there was a time for anti-corruption reforms, it is now.\"",
    "**Box 1. the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak**",
    "[عربي](https://www.imf.org/ar/News/Articles/2020/07/27/blog-corruption-and-covid-19)",
    "[https://www.imf.org/zh/News/Articles/2020/07/20/blog-the-covid-19-gender-gap](https://www.imf.org/zh/News/Articles/2020/07/20/blog-the-covid-19-gender-gap)",
    "[日本語](https://www.imf.org/ja/News/Articles/2020/07/27/blog-corruption-and-covid-19)",
    "[Português](https://www.imf.org/pt/News/Articles/2020/07/27/blog-corruption-and-covid-19)",
    "[increases opportunities for corruption.](https://www.imf.org/en/About/Factsheets/Sheets/2020/04/30/how-imf-covid19-financial-help-is-used)",
    "[corruption in public spending](https://blogs.imf.org/2019/05/28/corruption-and-your-money/)",
    "[corruption](https://blogs.imf.org/2019/04/04/tackling-corruption-in-government/)",
    "[spend whatever you need but keep the receipts](https://blogs.imf.org/2020/04/15/fiscal-policies-to-contain-the-damage-from-covid-19/)",
    "[Safeguards Assessment](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/SPROLLs/Safeguards-Assessments-Documents)",
    "[framework](https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/04/21/pr18142-imf-board-approves-new-framework-for-enhanced-engagement-on-governance)",
    "[staff analysis](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Policy-Papers/Issues/2020/07/15/Progress-In-Implementing-The-Framework-For-Enhanced-Fund-Engagement-On-Governance-49576)"
  ],
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      "title": "Box 1. the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak",
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      "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/covid19-special-notes/enspecial-series-on-covid19budget-execution-controls-to-mitigate-corruption-risk-in-pandemic-spendin.pdf",
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