Currently, IDM is working with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to develop a Methodology for the Integrity Risk Assessment (IRA) for the central government and to pilot it in the MoJ in the framework for the integrity planning process. MoJ, a central government institution is at the same time the National Anti-corruption Coordinator (NAC). As the NAC, the ministry directly monitors the implementation of the Anti-corruption Strategy and its Action Plan and obviously the implementation of anti-corruption measures such as the IRA Methodology and integrity plan.
The IDM approach and methodology for the IRA for central government bodies builds on the results and the body of knowledge developed in the framework of the previous IDM experiences. IDM was involved in the drafting process of IRA for the local government and the piloting process in 6 municipalities of Albania.[1]
Part of the IDM work is the drafting and validation of the IRA Methodology for the central government. In collaboration with the Integrity Working Group (IWG) of the MoJ, IDM is piloting the integrity self-assessment process within the MoJ. Two training sessions with the IWG and the ministry’s staff on integrity risk management were held in December 2019. In the next integrity self-assessment phase, the team worked together interactively to identify and verify all the processes, sub-processes of ministry’s areas that were vulnerable to corruption, violation of integrity, unethical and non-professional behavior and other irregularities. For this purpose, during January 2020, 10 focus groups with the ministry staff of different directories were held.
During the final round, the working group tried to map out all the integrity risks by areas of activity, identification of risk factors by considering the likelihood of occurrence or appearance of risks and their impact on the ministry’s integrity. The integrity risk assessment consisted of the working processes, has 4 common functional areas for the central government institutions, such as 1. Area of Financial Management; 2. Area of Human Resources; 3. Management Area of Control, Audit and Anti-Corruption Mechanisms; 4. Area of Archive, Safeguarding and Administration of Documents as well as of Information and Electronic Documents and 10 other specific areas part the MoJ field of activity.
So far, the integrity plan is still in the drafting process and is supposed to finish by the first week of March 2020.