Raise Awareness About Corruption (RO0059)

Raising public awareness on the impact of corruption
May – September 2019
Lead implementing agency/actor Ministry of Justice (MJ), Directorate for Crime Prevention Other actors involved State actors Anti-Corruption General Directorate CSOs, private sector, multilaterals, working groups What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Rejection of corruption acts by citizens, reporting irregularities or abuses are manifestations of civic spirit and respect for the rule of law. However, these values are not promoted and thoroughly explained, and there is still need to inform citizens on the legal obligations of institutions and civil servants and on how to fight the phenomenon of corruption, through available legal and civic means. Lack of information on the relevant legislation or on what does and what does not represent an act of corruption at the level of daily behaviour, are aspects that can favour the perpetuation of conduct that doesn’t encourage integrity, correctness and, last but not least, compliance with the laws. Commitment description What is the commitment? The Ministry of Justice will carry out a public information campaign, which will consist of an initial survey on the perception of corruption in Romania, in order to be able to choose a particular sector or a central theme that can be used to create deliverables and achieve the results: a TV spot, an audio spot, press releases, flyers and posters. How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? Increase the level of anticorruption education, by increasing the level of information of the public on the impact of corruption. Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Increased level of information and public awareness with a view to improve corruption prevention. Milestone activity with a verifiable Responsible agency / Start Date: End Date: 28 deliverable partner Perform an initial survey regarding the perception of corruption in Romania MJ May 2019 June 2019 Develop materials to be disseminated MJ June 2019 July 2019 Effective rollout of the campaign (media and press release) MJ July 2019 August 2019 Performing a follow-up survey regarding the perception of corruption in Romania MJ August 2019 September 2019 Additional information Budget 1.427.405 lei. The source already exists, with European funds being available for this action through the Operational Capacity Administrative Program (POCA), as part of the project "Strengthening the Administrative Capacity of the Technical Secretariat of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2016-2020 to support the implementation of anti-corruption measures". The financing contract was signed in November 2017 and will have a 22-month implementation period. Correlation with other government programs/strategies This commitment is connected to the SNA specific objective no. 4.2. - Increasing the level of information of the public regarding the impact of the corruption phenomenon, with actions including: - Organizing and running a public information campaign by the MJ in order to raise awareness and the level of anti-corruption education among citizens; - Organize and run sectoral public information campaigns in order to raise awareness and the level of anti-corruption education among citizens.

12. Raising public awareness on the impact of corruption

Commitment Text: "The Ministry of Justice will carry out a public information campaign, which will consist of an initial survey on the perception of corruption in Romania, in order to be able to choose a particular sector or a central theme that can be used to create deliverables and achieve the results: a TV spot, an audio spot, press releases, flyers and posters."

Milestones:

12. • Perform an initial survey regarding the perception of corruption in Romania
    • Develop materials to be disseminated
    • Effective rollout of the campaign (media and press release)
    • Performing a follow-up survey regarding the perception of corruption in Romania

Start Date: May 2019

End Date: September 2020

Editorial Note: The commitment text is abridged. The full text can be found in the OGP 2018-2020 national action plan.

Context and Objectives

According to Transparency International, public perception of corruption in Romania is among the highest in the European Union. [112] The lack of information on the relevant legislation, on what represents an act of corruption in daily practice, and on what to do when one observes it helps perpetuate corruption in the country. The most recent awareness raising campaigns on corruption are those of Transparency International (TI) in 2007, and of the General Directorate Anticorruption (DGA) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2014. [113] Consequently, this commitment aims to carry out a new awareness raising campaign that informs citizens on the legal obligations of institutions and civil servants and on how to fight corruption through available legal and civic means. [114] The milestones are verifiable, and by raising awareness on and facilitating access to anticorruption resources, the commitment furthers access to information.

The specifics of the campaign are lacking in the action plan. For example, according to an interviewed Ministry of Justice (MoJ) representative, this initial survey envisioned under Milestone 12.1 will differ fundamentally from the corruption barometer and the corruption perception indices of TI. [115] However, it is unclear what the desired sample size is, which sampling methodology will be employed (e.g., will only citizens be asked to fill in the questionnaire or also members of the public administration? Will it be an anonymous survey? Will the same sample be monitored twice, or will the two surveys be based on random drawings? etc.), and whether the survey questions and the survey results will be published after the awareness raising campaign is completed. Through this information campaign, MoJ wishes to have a lasting impact on the target group, [116] but the literature shows that awareness raising and persuasion campaigns have short-lived effects. [117] This is especially true when the target group is varied, as the MoJ representative explained, such as citizens that request public services, youth, business sectors, and employees of the public administration. [118] Because all of these groups have different motivations and incentives to care about, partake in, or report on corruption, [119] without a more targeted, continuous campaign, the potential impact of the commitment is likely to be minor.

Next steps

Representatives from both MoJ and TI recognize the importance of raising awareness on the impact of corruption and on how to prevent it. [120] Nevertheless, given their short-lived effects, their repetition is essential to changing mindsets and business-as-usual practices. If this commitment is carried forward to the next action plan, it could be designed and executed in the following ways: 

• MoJ could open the survey methods, samples, results, and the analyses thereof, and allow citizens to understand how many people were surveyed, how they were selected, what questions were they asked, what metrics were employed, etc. This metainformation will provide the information necessary to judge the efficiency of the campaign and to inform on the design of future campaigns.
• MoJ could require that all information materials created by the private contractor (radio, TV, and printed materials) be published under open access—so that the ministry and other interested parties can reuse them freely.
• Given the short-term effects of the awareness raising campaigns, MoJ could consider repeating them more frequently. To this end, MoJ could partner with civil society [121] and with the media, to ensure that viable old promotional materials (e.g., from the current campaign, from the 2014 DGA campaign, etc.) are recycled and brought to the public’s attention on a more permanent basis. According to the TI representative, there are many useful tools and solutions that TI holds, but there are also solutions that come from other public institutions—e.g., the Romanian railway system has a "General Complaints Telephone Number" printed on its tickets that can be used to report corruption. [122]

[112] Transparency International (2018) "Corruption perception index", available at http://bit.ly/2kINIjS.

[113] The 2007 TI campaign "Don’t bribe" is presented [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2kkXkkS, and the 2014 campaign "Don’t bribe and don’t receive bribes! Avoid and denounce corruption" of the General Directorate Anticorruption (Ministry of Interior) is presented [in Romanian] at http://bit.ly/2kLlapU.

[114] Interview with Irina Lonean, Transparency International: Romanian Chapter (TI), 29 August 2019.

[115] Interview with Ruxandra Banica, Ministry of Justice (MoJ), 29 August 2019.

[116] Interview with Ruxandra Banica, MoJ, 29 August 2019.

[117] Alan S. Gerber, James G. Gimpel, Donald P. Green, Daron R. Shaw (2011) "How Large and Long-lasting Are the Persuasive Effects of Televised Campaign Ads? Results from a Randomized Field Experiment", American Political Science Review, vol. 105 (1), pp. 135-150.

[118] Interview with Ruxandra Banica, MoJ, 29 August 2019.

[119] Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Communication for Behavior Change in the 21st Century: Improving the Health of Diverse Populations. Speaking of Health: Assessing Health Communication Strategies for Diverse Populations. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2002. 3, Health Communication Campaigns Exemplar, available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK222234/.

[120] Interview with Irina Lonean, TI, 29 August 2019 Interview with Ruxandra Banica, MoJ, 29 August 2019.

[121] According to the TI and MoJ representatives, MoJ has not partnered with or elicited the support of civil society in the creation or dissemination of the current information materials (Interview with Irina Lonean, TI, 29 August 2019; Interview with Ruxandra Banica, MoJ, 29 August 2019.)

[122] Interview with Irina Lonean, TI, 29 August 2019.

12. Raise public awareness on the impact of corruption

Not started

As with Commitment 11, the National Anticorruption Strategy 2016-2020 that would financially support this commitment was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19. [64] Thus, the commitment was not started.