Egypt announced its National Anti-Corruption Strategy for the period starting in December 2014 and ending in December 2018. This was done during a major official ceremony that was held yesterday at the headquarters of the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) in commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day and was organized under the patronage of the President of the Republic and attended by the Prime Minister and various ministers and officials in charge of implementing the Strategy, in addition to other stakeholders and representatives of regional and international organizations.
The Strategy was developed by members of the National Coordinating Committee for Combating Corruption which is headed by the Prime Minister and includes representatives of most of the concerned national official bodies. Its work is coordinated by a technical committee that is headed by the ACA.
The first section of the Strategy addresses the phenomenon of corruption in Egypt and explains its causes. The second section outlines a general framework that includes principles, duration and actors involved in implementation; moreover, it provides an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of Egypt’s anti-corruption environment. The third and final section includes the vision, mission and main objectives and a general executive plan is annexed to the Strategy.
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy in Egypt adopts ten main objectives, which range from short to medium term, namely, (1) raising the level of performance in government, (2) establishing transparency and integrity principles among public officials, (3) developing and updating anti-corruption legislation, (4) strengthening judicial procedures to achieve prompt justice, (5) strengthening capacities of anti-corruption bodies, (6) raising living standards and achieving social justice, (7) raising awareness and building trust between citizens and State institutions, (8) strengthening national cooperation against corruption, (9) strengthening regional and international cooperation against corruption, (10) strengthening civil society participation in combating corruption.
The Strategy constitutes a good and comprehensive starting point as it covers both prevention and criminalization, involves a large number of concerned agencies in combating corruption, and underlines the importance of developing national indicators to monitor actual implementation on the ground, which is emphasized by comparative experiences also calling for the need to focus on securing sufficient financial and human resources for this purpose. Such experiences also call for a greater focus on sectoral approaches so as not to be limited to overarching legal and institutional approaches and for strengthening the role of civil society through specific tools and mechanisms. In addition, they also emphasize the indispensable need for adequate frameworks that are effective in coordinating the implementation and ensuring proper monitoring and evaluation.
The National Anti-corruption Strategy in Egypt is available in Arabic, English and French at: http://www.aca.gov.eg/arabic/AntiCorruption/Pages/nationalstrategy.aspx.