Financial Crime World

Effective Strategies for Improving Compliance Risk Management in Slovakia

Maintaining public integrity in Slovakia requires an effective corruption risk management system that ensures measures are targeted and efficient, ultimately achieving public policy goals. However, the potency of these systems is heavily influenced by the behavior and decision-making of those involved.

Applying Behavioral Science Methods to Strengthen Risk Management Practices

The OECD and the Corruption Prevention Department of the Government Office of the Slovak Republic partnered to apply behavioral science methods to strengthen Slovakia’s risk management practices. A survey experiment was conducted with over 2500 public officials across Slovak public administrations to test the effectiveness of behavioral strategies in promoting risk communication.

Study Findings

The study revealed that behavioral science applications can significantly increase the propensity of public servants to speak up about potential conflicts of interest and untransparent hiring processes.

  • When participants were exposed to behaviorally-informed messages leveraging social norms, the rate of reporting risks to their hierarchy increased by 52 percentage points compared to the control group.
  • Exposure to examples of good ethical leadership can enhance the likelihood of public servants communicating corruption risks, with a 14 percentage point increase.
  • Employees who were exposed to messages aimed at improving their understanding of risks were 9 percentage points more likely to communicate a risk compared to the control group.

Key Insights and Recommendations

The study’s findings highlight several key insights and recommendations for improving compliance risk management in Slovakia:

Recognize Behavioral Strategies as an Effective Tool

  • Encourage public sector integrity by leveraging behavioral strategies.
  • Ensure that public servants feel safe and are encouraged to communicate risks.

Promote Good Ethical Behaviors from Leaders

  • Foster a culture of good ethical leadership by promoting exposure to examples of effective risk communication.

Enhance Awareness and Understanding of Risk Management Systems**

  • Increase awareness of the importance of communicating integrity risks.
  • Ensure that knowledge of risk communication channels and trust in the system contribute to the likelihood of communicating about corruption risks.

Institutional Leaders and Cross-Agency Working Groups

The study identified anti-corruption coordinators and cross-agency working groups as important institutional leaders for effective risk management.

Collaborative Effort

This report is a collaborative effort between the OECD Anti-Corruption and Integrity in Government Division and the Innovative, Digital and Open Government Division within the OECD Public Governance Directorate.