Reducing corruption at the local level

Corruption ranks, together with effective democratic representation, as the most important problem facing local governments. The challenge facing local governments is to develop innovative ways of building effective, accountable, and transparent systems that are able to efficiently deliver services. The objective of this paper is to provide both a conceptual and a practical framework, as well as an international perspective with concrete examples, to address the contexts that create perverse incentives for corruption to exist. Practical tools and approaches are thus presented, including how to involve people in policymaking; different diagnostic tools to identify priorities of reform; informatics to track public revenue and expenditure; simplified rules to improve the procurement process; diagnostics; and participatory techniques for developing and monitoring local budgets. Among the main results expected, the author mentions informed knowledge, coalition-building leading to collective action, and transparent political leadership at the local level.