INTEGRITY PACTS MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO PREVENT FRAUD AND CORRUPTION IN EU FUNDS
10.06.2015.
Transparency International Croatia has organized a conference as part of the first phase of a joint-project of Transparency International and the European Commission entitled, “Integrity Pacts – Civil Control Mechanism for safeguarding EU-funds.”
Today’s conference is extremely important for informing the general public, as well as raising awareness and support for the activities that are being implemented in the area of the fight against fraud and corruption in the governance of European Structural and Investment Funds. The goal is to present Integrity Pacts to national experts in the area of public procurement, the public sector, bidders and contract awardees as well as investors and others in the business community, civil society and the public.
Integrity Pacts are a tool that has multiple positive effects and are being applied in a number of EU member states, so there is already experience and best practices to learn from their implementation. In the current programming period up to 2020, Croatia will invest more than 10 billion euros from European Structural and Investment Funds, which is one of the main sources of public investment. Effective management and capacity utilization signifies the implementation of a policy of zero tolerance to corruption.
Corruption and fraud are becoming a real risk in the case of large and significant resources, and the establishment of effective and timely mechanisms can prevent irregularities. Agreements on the integrity of a tender with mechanisms of civil society monitoring can minimize these risks as well as ensure the transparency and control of each phase or segment of the investment.
Inguna Kramiņa, Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy at the European Commission wil participate in the conference in addition to analyst Ágnes Czibik from Corruption Research Center Budapest and Michaela Rajkova from TI-Bulgaria. Local experts discussing risk factors in public procurement procedures consist of Goran Matešić, President of the State Commission for Supervision of Public Procurement Procedure; Filko Cezner, Assistant Minister of Economy; and Tatjana Borovina, Head of the department for the establishment and improvement of the systems in the Directorate for the implementation of operational programs and international instruments at the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds. The experiences of bidders and contract awardees will be shared by consultants including Ana Fresl, Executive Director of Project Equals Development d.o.o. and Georgios Chatzigiagkou, Senior consultant at Matrix Logic d.o.o., as well as the Mayor of the City of Lepoglava and Member of Parliament Marijan Škvarić.
All media inquiries can be directed to the TIC office: 091 2232011, mediji@transparency.hr
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Disclaimer: This communication reflects the views of Transparency International Croatia and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
