Lithuania’s National Agenda on Prevention of Corruption: A Review
A recent review of Lithuania’s National Agenda on Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) for the period 2015-2025 has identified several areas that require improvement. While the strategy has made significant progress in some areas, it falls short in others.
Outlook and Key Recommendations
The review provides an outlook on the design of the strategy and key recommendations for future strategies. It also assesses Lithuania’s priority areas and what was accomplished by the action plans. The assessment took into consideration the standards set out in the 2017 OECD Recommendation on Public Integrity and the OECD Public Integrity Indicators (PII).
Assessment Against OECD Standards
The review found that Lithuania’s previous strategy, the “2015-2025 Anti-Corruption Programme of the Republic of Lithuania,” was assessed against the OECD PII on Principle 3 of the OECD Recommendation on Public Integrity. The indicator showed outstanding areas with a compliance rate of 100%, such as the “Minimum content in public integrity strategies” indicator.
However, certain areas may require further strengthening. For example, the indicator requires a minimum duration of at least two weeks for inter-governmental and public consultation established in legislation. Lithuania received a total score of 29%, which is lower than the OECD average and the top 10 average performers.
Consultation Processes
Measurement of consultation processes is vital as transparent and inclusive processes for public policy decision-making are essential for averting capture by narrow interest groups. A virtual fact-finding mission, a consultation in the first semester of 2022, and a survey to assess the involvement of national entities in the national anti-corruption programme were conducted.
- The survey found that institutional stakeholders were broadly satisfied with their involvement in the development phase of the strategy and were able to participate adequately in the implementation and monitoring phases.
- However, some institutions felt that the strategy proposed an excessive number of objectives.
Design Quality
Institutional stakeholders also had a generally positive view of the design phase of the 2015-2025 NAPC. Most institutions agreed that the strategy reflected national priorities, ensured coherence with previous national anti-corruption strategies, targeted core corruption issues in their field, and proposed suitably specific measures to tackle these.
- However, some institutions felt that the strategy proposed too many objectives and priority sectors.
- Overall, implementing institutions viewed the Action Plans as feasible and realistic.
Recommendations
Considering the challenges of the 2015-2025 NAPC, Lithuania could consider developing a clearer cause-and-effect link between planned activities and desired outcomes in the design of future integrity strategies. In line with the 2017 OECD Recommendation on Public Integrity, the 2015-2025 NAPC identified and consolidated integrity policies using a risk-based approach.
The review highlights the importance of strengthening consultation processes and improving the design quality of future integrity strategies to ensure their effectiveness in preventing corruption.