Introduction

Local governance reform continues apace around the globe, with an ever increasing trend towards the transfer of powers and responsibilities from central government to the subnational level.

Although decentralisation processes can help strengthen accountability by bringing government closer to the people, corruption is a problem at all levels and decentralising services can also simply decentralise corruption.

For example, local officials may have greater vested interests based on family, friendships and business ties that can influence decision-making; remuneration at the local government level is, in many cases, low in comparison to the national level; and the institutions that are designed to hold public officials to account at the local level are not always adequate. Monitoring by the media and civic institutions can also be weak.

Contact between local government officials and the public is highest at the local level, which increases the opportunities for corruption. Conversely, it also provides more chances for citizens to hold governments to account. Thus, decentralisation provides both significant opportunities which can be leveraged in the fight against corruption, but also presents particular challenges which must be addressed.

For further information, please see TI’s Local Governance Integrity: Principles and Standards

In addition, TI developed the Local Integrity System assessment toolkit, to assess the internal governance and capacity of each of the core local government actors and their role in promoting integrity in the system as a whole.