The Platform for the Western Balkans was launched at a high-level regional conference held on 25 June 2021 in Ohrid, North Macedonia. At that meeting, high-level government representatives of six Western Balkan jurisdictions agreed on an Anti-corruption and Illicit Finance Roadmap to fast-track the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in support of the Global Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions.
The roadmap focuses on three shared priority areas that were determined through jurisdiction-based consultations and a regional consultation that took place in Ohrid, North Macedonia, from 21 to 23 June 2021, where representatives from the Ministries of Interior, Ministries of Justice, Financial Intelligence Units, Procurement Agencies, Prosecutors, specialized Police, Anti-corruption Agencies, and Sports experts agreed on the Roadmap at the technical level.
In 2022 UNODC supported the six jurisdictions of the regional platform in the Western Balkans with a number of regional and other capacity building events to advance the implementation of the Regional Anti-Corruption and Illicit Finance Roadmap in its three priority areas. This included eight regional events, including a high-level anti-corruption conference, as well as the development of 11 knowledge products in local languages. UNODC also supported the development of asset recovery strategies. Additionally, 384 officials (179 of whom were female) were trained on preventing corruption through national capacity building activities aimed at implementing the Regional Anti-Corruption and Illicit Finance Roadmap.
Preventing and countering corruption in public procurement, including in times of crises
- Harmonize legal and regulatory framework for public procurement and public-private partnerships across the Western Balkans jurisdictions
with UNCAC and relevant directives of the European Union.
- Strengthen anti-corruption measures in the context of emergency procurement.
- Develop or strengthen ability of jurisdictions' to identify corruption risks in procurement processes and develop instruments to mitigate these risks.
- Develop and/or strengthen jurisdictions'' ability to identify corruption risks in procurement processes and develop instruments to mitigate these risks.
- Strengthen mechanisms to ensure effective administrative monitoring and oversight in public procurement.
- Establish efficient systems for preventing and mitigating conflicts of interest in public procurement.
- Strengthen measures to promote integrity, professionalism and responsibility among public procurement officers.
- Use open data to further promote transparency in public procurement.
- Improve capacity to investigate, prosecute and adjudicate corruption offences related to public procurement fraud.
Further strengthening conflict of interest and asset declaration systems
- Establish or further enhance transparency and functionality of asset, income, and interest disclosure systems for all public officials in the region.
- Empower institutions mandated to manage asset, income and interest disclosure systems to conduct in-depth and effective verifications.
- Further develop an asset declaration system for key targeted public administrations’ or institutions’ employee groups.
- Widely promote and ensure recognition and understanding of the concept of conflict of interest by public officials and the general public.
- Ensure recognition and understanding of the concept of beneficial ownership by public officials and the general public, and promotion
by competent institutions.
Enhancing criminal justice responses to corruption and economic crime through the creation of a regional network of specialized prosecutors, law enforcement and financial intelligence units in the Western Balkans jurisdictions
