Local Anti-Corruption Measures (CI0022)

Commitment 7 : Fight against corruption and racketeering in Ivorian local
communities
June 2018-June 2020
Main implementing
agency/ actor
Executive Management of Decentralization and Local
Development
Commitment description
What is the public interest
issue to be addressed by
this commitment?
Corruption and racketeering are experienced in Côte d'Ivoire's
public and private administrations. They undermine efforts
made to improve governance and weaken the political, social
and economic stability in general and at the local level in
particular.
What is the commitment ?
Continue the establishment of Communal Anti-racketeering
and Anti-corruption Committees (CCLR),
How will the commitment
contribute to solve the
public problem?
The commitment will allow to mobilize local authorities, civil
society, private sector and local deconcentrated Local services
through
- Establishing local committees ;
- Assessing existing committees;
- Training members on education and whistle blowing in
order to pool their efforts to alleviate local corruption and
racketeering practices.
This will include the creation of a national coalition against this
evil in order to share experiences.
Why is this commitment
relevant to OGP values?
This commitment is relevant as it ensures fight against
corruption, transparency in public affairs management and
citizen participation.
Additional information
- This commitment enjoys a budget of CFA F 500,000,000.
- This commitment is in line with 2016-2020 NDP in its axis 4,
effect 2 and with 20191 PIP.
Important activityhaving
a verifiable deliverable
Start date End date
Establishment of the
national coalition January 2019 December 2019 Establishment of new
CCLR
June 2019 June 2020
Assessment of existing
CCLR
January 2020 June 2020
Contact information
Name of responsible from
the implementing agency
DAGO Djahi Lazare
Title, Ministry - Executive Management of Decentralization and Local
Development (DGDDL)
- Ministry of Interior and Security
Email and Phone - [email protected] ;
- [email protected];
- +225 20 22 35 76
Other
stakeholders
involved
State actors
involved
Deconcentrated government services, Local Collectivities
CSOs,
private
sector,
multilaterals,
working
groups
National Civil Society Organizationsand local private sector

7. Fight against corruption and racketeering in Ivorian local communities

Commitment description as provided in the action plan:

"Continue the establishment of Communal Anti-racketeering and Anti-corruption Committees (CCLR)"

Milestones:

1. Establishment of the national coalition
2. Establishment of new CCLR
3. Assessment of existing CCLR"
4. Training committee members on whistleblowing*

*Editorial Note: the IRM researcher added milestone 4 in order to reflect the “How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?” section of the commitment as indicated in the action plan. For the full text of this commitment, see Côte d'Ivoire’s action plan 2018-2020: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Cote-Divoire_Action-Plan_2018-2020_EN.pdf.

Lead implementing agency/actor: Executive Management of Decentralization and Local Development / National and local civil society organizations and the local private sector.

Start Date: June 2018

End Date: June 2020

Context and design

In Côte d’Ivoire, petty bribery and racketeering remain deeply entrenched in bureaucratic practice, with low salaries creating fertile grounds for “facilitation payments.” [98] According to Human Rights Watch, the two principal sectors affected by corruption are police and security forces, with security checkpoints being used by the police to extort bribes. [99] In 2011, the government set up the Anti-racket Unit to fight extortion by the police at checkpoints. [100] Its work has been undermined by inconsistent financial support and the failure of security forces to prosecute corruption perpetrators. [101] Therefore, despite efforts racketeering is still frequent in the country. [102]

This commitment builds on commitment 13 from the previous action plan, which established five Communal Anti-racketeering and Anti-corruption Committees (CCLRs). Racketeering Committees are composed of civil society representatives and local public administrations and are chaired by a local elected official or their representative. These committees are established by municipal decree with a mandate to evaluate the racketeering situation and specific complaints and make recommendations to local authorities. In this way, CCLRs aim to sensitize the public, denounce, and monitor. [103]

At the end of the previous implementation period, civil society reported that CCLRs were inactive in most municipalities [104] and those that were created were often not fully operational. [105] The present commitment aims to address lacking capacity by mobilizing local authorities, civil society, private sector and local services through continuing with the installation and training of CCLRs. The commitment proposes to establish new committees, assess and strengthen the capacities of existing ones and raise public awareness on racketeering practices. The action plan also mentions the creation of a national coalition against local corruption and racketeering.

As written, the commitment is verifiable. However, milestones are vague and fail to specify the number of CCLRs that will be established, the evaluation method for existing CCLRs and the measures undertaken by the government afterwards. Moreover, the role and composition of the national coalition against corruption is not specified. With regard to OGP values, the commitment is relevant to civic participation, as it incorporates organizations and citizens in the establishment of CCLRs. Specifically, the committees are chaired by city mayors and include around 30 members from decentralized state services, municipal staff, community leaders, civil society organizations’ representatives. Anti-racketeering committees act as a liaison with the government at the local level, through the support of citizens who are the actors (volunteers) and beneficiaries. Taking into account the description in the previous action plan, this reform is also relevant to public accountability as citizens will contribute to monitoring, investigating, and denouncing public officials' acts of corruption.

As written, the limitations of this commitment concern the anti-racketeering national coalition. As long as there is no coherent and effective system of whistleblowing and whistleblower protection, anti-racketeering committees will not achieve effective results, according to civil society organizations. [106] Therefore, and without any further specificity of the given milestones, the potential impact of this commitment remains minor.

Completion

This commitment has been substantially completed. [107] The national coalition of anti-racketeering committees (milestone 1) consisted of setting up a social media platform (WhatsApp group) to facilitate communication between the committees. More notably, from mid-2018 to mid-2020, the following seven CCLRs were created (milestone 2), as reported by a representative of the DGDDL: Yopougon, Divo, Adiaké, Grand-Bassam, Oumé, Anyama, Bonoua. Others had been established previously since 2017 with support from the Millennium Challenge Corporation and five of them in the framework of the first OGP action plan. [108] At the time of writing this report there were 20 active CCLRs. [109] An evaluation of CCLRs took place before June 2020 (milestone 3), and 11 out of 20 communes with CCLRs were provided with capacity-building sessions (milestone 4). [110] Additionally, given its contribution to the fight against corruption and racketeering, the Ministry of the Interior and Security expressed the will to continue supporting the installation of CCLRs in all municipalities for a better territorial network. [111]

According to a member of the DGDDL, introducing a commitment on the Communal Committees for the Fight against Racketeering (CCLRs) in the OGP action plan enabled the government to strengthen the committees and link them to the fight against corruption. [112] DGDDL obtained more support from other government departments, civil society organizations, as well as the private sector, facilitating the installation and capacity building of several committees. PAGOF produced a guide [113] on what type of acts can be expected from municipal public services and procedures against racketeering. Based on this guide, workshops were held in eleven municipalities to raise awareness among local public officials, elected representatives and civil society on the types of service acts and procedures that can be carried out by municipal authorities. [114] The objectives of the guide and subsequent workshops were to encourage harmonization of procedures and fight corrupt practices locally.

However, in terms of results, both government and civil society representatives acknowledged that the commitment’s impact is still low in terms of fighting racketeering, [115] and that whistleblowers do not yet feel safe. [116] Nevertheless, the IRM welcomes the government’s will to pursue the establishment of anti-racket committees in all regions and recommends the adoption of an integrated approach that takes into account whistleblower protection measures, anti-racketeering committees and a national anti-corruption strategy. The next action plan includes the drafting of an anti-corruption strategy and is an important step in this direction.