This Anti-Corruption Helpdesk brief was produced in response to a query from the European Commission. The Anti-Corruption Helpdesk is operated by Transparency International and funded by the European Union.

Query

How do EU member states collect statistics and information about corruption cases? What kind of corruption cases (criminal, administrative/reported by citizens, law enforcement bodies) are statistics collected for? Is the data collection and dissemination centralised in one administration or decentralised? Is information about follow-up to these cases made public?

CONTENT

1. Overview of corruption-related data collection methods
2. Country examples
3. EU tools on statistics

CAVEAT

There is only limited literature available on national statistical reporting on corruption and no best practices have yet been identified. National statistical data is usually available only in the national language. The country examples below were selected based on the linguistic resources available in the research team and expert network.

SUMMARY

There are neither documented best practices nor standardised ways for EU member states to collect data and produce statistics about corruption. Very limited research has been conducted on this topic. The recent National Integrity System assessments conducted in European member states concluded that some member states do not even collect such statistics.
Corruption-related data collection, meaning criminal cases reported to law enforcement authorities as well as administrative cases of corruption, can be centralised or decentralised. Governments opting for centralising the data collection often delegate this task to their anti-corruption commission or the national statistics bureau. Corruption statistics produced generally restrict analysis to criminal cases of corruption. Only in a few instances are administrative cases included in the analysis. Data is often collected regarding the source of detection of corruption cases as well as their outcome (criminal or administrative sanctions).

Authors

Sofia Wickberg, Transparency International, [email protected] with the help of Luca Gefäller, Transparency International

Reviewers

Marie Chêne, Transparency International, Finn Heinrich PhD, Transparency International

Date

04/11/2013

OVERVIEW OF PRACTICES FOR THE COLLECTION OF CORRUPTION DATA AND STATISTICS IN EU MEMBER STATES