Key facts
Large-scale corruption is a major obstacle to development: officials who allow themselves to be corrupted or who divert public funds deprive the state of essential resources. Accordingly, the institutions in affected states are too weak to prevent or punish large-scale corruption. Combating corruption abroad is thus one of the objectives in Switzerland’s International Cooperation Strategy 2021-2024 and the Federal Council’s anti-corruption strategy.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) implement the International Cooperation Strategy on the basis of projects in Switzerland’s 41 partner countries. During the 2021 to 2024 strategy period, a total of 63 projects worth CHF 103 million were carried out in the anticorruption subject area. Objectives are also implemented through participation in multilateral bodies and direct contributions to relevant civil and research institutions.
In its audit, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) assessed the entire federal system for combating large-scale corruption abroad, and analysed the SDC’s and SECO’s activities in this regard. The SFAO found that not enough focused attention is paid to this objective during projects aimed at combating corruption. The SFAO recognises the need for central management to be strengthened, for a set of operational objectives to be formulated, and for cooperation across the offices. For this to happen, the available knowledge needs to be better exploited and efficiency measurement needs to be improved in this subject area.