Axes of the National Strategy for Integrity and Prevention of Corruption
Axis 1. Governance of the Anticorruption Area
The purpose of the Anticorruption Area Governance axis is to establish a governance model for integrity, control environment and anticorruption, with a country steering role and a national public policy that coordinates, articulates and strategically directs it; including the development of regulatory reform guidelines that support the implementation of the various objectives of the ENIPC.
1.1. Governance Model
Propose an organized, coherent, sustainable and comprehensive governance model for integrity, control environment and anti-corruption, with a systemic, strategic and articulated approach with state and non-state, national and local actors.
1.2. National Anti-Corruption Policy
Promote before the competent authorities the co-creation of a national anti-corruption public policy, participatory and open.
1.3. Legal Reforms
Promote regulatory improvements in the area of integrity and anti-corruption by identifying the necessary reforms to modernize the country’s legal framework.
Human Talent Management to Fight Corruption
Human talent management to fight corruption seeks the incorporation into the public sector of people who demonstrate probity and suitability for the respective positions. Likewise, various actions are contemplated to promote, train, supervise and ensure the integrity of public officials and institutions.
2.1. Promoting ethics
Incorporate key public institutions into the National System of Ethics and Values to continue with the uniform implementation of the Ethics Management Model for the Public Administration, in accordance with the regulations in force for strengthening ethics and through mechanisms for continuous improvement.
2.2. Suitability Recruitment
Reform and implement legal and technical instruments so that applicants for public office demonstrate suitability and probity for the exercise of these positions, regardless of the institution, field of action, nature or branch of the Republic where they apply to perform functions, through the mechanisms defined by the competent authorities; ensuring that public services are provided by qualified personnel.
2.3. Induction and continuous training of personnel
Incorporate ongoing training activities to instruct public officials and other stakeholders (citizens, suppliers, etc.) on ethics applied to public service and ethical management of public affairs, based on the study of ethical principles and the duty of probity, for their application in the performance of their duties, in order to minimize the infringement of associated offenses.
Promote awareness-raising, education and continuous training activities on the disciplinary regulations that sanction the breach of duties in the public service, improper, fraudulent and corrupt conduct, to ensure effectiveness in the processing of administrative disciplinary proceedings and in the imposition and enforcement of sanctions in order to remove from public office those persons who lack suitability and promote dissuasive mechanisms against conduct contrary to probity.
2.4. Application of the disciplinary regime
Implement a categorization of general administrative disciplinary sanctions, which homogeneously and universally regulate the disciplinary response in the branches of the Republic, autonomous institutions and decentralized entities of the State, which may require processes external to the ENIPC, such as the approval of a regulatory framework related to public employment and its sanctioning regime.
Axis 3. Promotion of citizen participation and control
Promotion of citizen participation and control seeks to enhance the role of the citizenry in the enactment of public policies, in consultative processes and in the oversight of public finances and the civil service in general.
3.1. Strengthening participation and control mechanisms
Evaluate mechanisms for citizen participation and control in public institutions for the prevention of corruption in accordance with the Open State Action Plan.
Design a basic standard course for civil society on the ENIPC and the mechanisms of participation and citizen control for the prevention of corruption.
Develop and implement a training program for trainers aimed at civil society on the ENIPC and the mechanisms of denunciation and citizen control.
Design and implement a standard awareness-raising course for public officials on the importance of citizen participation and social control as tools for transparency and the fight against corruption.
Promote communication and dissemination processes on the importance of citizen participation and social control as tools for transparency and the fight against corruption.
Develop and implement a training program for trainers aimed at civil society on the ENIPC and the mechanisms for citizen reporting and control.
Design and implement a standard awareness-raising course for public officials on the importance of citizen participation and social control as tools for transparency and the fight against corruption.
Promote communication and dissemination processes on participation and control mechanisms in public institutions.
Effective whistleblowing and whistleblower protection.
Provide public officials with the necessary inputs to properly and more effectively report alleged acts of corruption or lack of ethics and transparency in the exercise of public functions.
Strengthen and establish confidential reporting mechanisms to bring alleged acts of corruption to the attention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. Likewise, that people within the Public Administration know how to activate the mechanisms and the guarantee of confidentiality that they provide.
Promote effective protection for persons reporting acts of corruption against retaliation and threats, through existing institutions.
Know the statistics of complaints in process that come from anonymous sources and follow up on them.
Ensure that the population is aware of the mechanisms for confidential complaints to the Judicial Investigation Agency and their rights.
Provide tools for investigative journalism in acts of corruption to identify relevant cases.
3.3. Early Education for Participation and Integrity
Develop an education program on integrity and corruption prevention that will allow the student population of the Costa Rican educational system to acquire the necessary skills and competencies to make decisions with a high sense of social responsibility and with the capacity to counteract corruption in the fulfillment of their duties and responsibilities, especially in the early education phase.
Develop content related to integrity, public ethics and anti-corruption to be incorporated into the curricular model in autonomous educational institutions dedicated to para-university technical education, specialized in operative and technical studies that do not require secondary education.
Elaborate a program of integrity and corruption prevention in institutions dedicated to university higher education, for the implementation of training modules adjusted to principles of ethics, transparency, efficacy and efficiency.
Train in values of integrity and corruption prevention, in an equitable and inclusive manner, with emphasis on vulnerable sectors, through the development of specific programs that are highly multiplier and promote activities associated with their daily lives, which also requires the dissemination, through national, regional and local media, of campaigns to promote a culture of integrity and corruption prevention.
Axis 4. Corruption risk management in public-private interaction (non-state actors)
Corruption risk management in public-private interaction (non-state actors) seeks to delimit and prevent conflicts of interest and areas of risk of corruption in activities involving public servants and public sector bodies with private actors.
4.1. Public procurement
4.2. Permits and other authorizations
Promote control, efficiency, transparency and security of both requested and legal information in permits and authorizations for users/citizens in the short term.
4.3. Conflicts of interest, lobbying, bribery and influence peddling
Promote within the institutions the implementation of conflict of interest prevention regulations adjusted to their particular risks in the fight against corruption.
Strengthen the legal tools required for the effective repression of money laundering for corruption offenses.
4.4. Integrity programs in private enterprise
Promote the establishment of ethics and compliance programs within public and private sector organizations in order to mitigate corruption risks, by means of a communication and training campaign, advice, accompaniment and the generation of incentive policies, to be implemented within a period of ten years.
Axis 5. Access to Information of Public Interest and Accountability
The Access to Information of Public Interest and Accountability axis includes initiatives focused on opening public data, strengthening transparency and accountability, as well as efforts aimed at simplifying procedures for citizens through digitalization.
5.1. Openness of public administration data
Generate skills and capacities in public servants so that institutions have priority information and increase the publication of open, accessible and interoperable data in the medium term.
Develop continuous training programs for civil society on open data and its uses, as well as on access to public information through the use of public citizen centers in the long term.
Promote the publication of priority open data sets for the prevention and fight against corruption according to the Anti-Corruption Open Data Guide and national instruments to increase their availability in the long term.
5.2. Strengthening Transparency and Accountability
Design a civic education campaign to promote and strengthen citizen oversight so that organized civil society groups are aware of and apply existing regulations and instruments for measuring transparency and public management in the country.
Determine compliance with the provisions of the General Law on the Transfer of Powers from the Executive Branch to the Municipalities (No. 8801) and its Regulations, in relation to citizen participation in the process of transferring powers to the Municipal Regime.
Promote a draft law on Transparency and Access to Public Information that includes mechanisms that guarantee the effective fulfillment of the fundamental right of access to public information, in a proactive, timely, informal, complete and accessible manner.
5.3. Simplification of procedures for the citizenry
Improve citizen perception regarding the ease of procedures to access public services such as medical appointments, construction permits and economic subsidies (i.e. housing vouchers and IMAS economic benefits).
Promote access to procedures and services, as well as a space for the management of citizen taxes, certifications and certificates generated by the State, through the consolidation of a single digital window, which includes the procedures and services identified as a priority.
Develop mechanisms to generate, interoperate, analyze, synthesize and produce valuable knowledge for decision making and risk management based on public data and information held by Costa Rican public sector institutions.