[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1132, 207], "category": "Text", "text": "Guinea-Bissau faces a general absence of effective oversight mechanisms over services responsible for public resources management, which affects economic governance and transparency."}, {"bbox": [97, 219, 1133, 379], "category": "Text", "text": "a. Parliament (ANP): There is evidence that the Parliament has limited capacity to fully play its role in PFM. The new Parliament has just been elected and once installed, will need capacity building in PFM and anti-corruption. The ANP also needs support in implementing a guide for the functioning of parliamentary committees and in the development of guidelines for committees that work with the support of the INTER PARES programme. Additionally, the new Internal Control and Audit Office (GCAI) should be supported through the development of guidelines for its operation, and training of its staff."}, {"bbox": [97, 390, 1133, 577], "category": "Text", "text": "b. Court of Auditors: The Court of Auditors (TC) has recently conducted several audits that highlighted fiscal risks arising from SOEs situation, but it has been less active in the assessment of the General Account of State. Despite that performance still lacks the required financial and administrative autonomy, therefore, amending the Organic Law 7/1992 that established the Court of Auditors towards granting more financial and administrative autonomy will be an important step. It also needs support for the dematerialization of their processes, which would speed up the prior inspection of acts and contracts. This Action will complement the PALOP-TL ISC staff training with an induction and continuous capacity building programme."}, {"bbox": [97, 588, 1133, 748], "category": "Text", "text": "c. Civil society: PRO PALOP-TL ISC programme has pioneered the engagement of citizens to advocate for transparency regarding the budgeting process and to monitor Government budgeted projects within the country. The main objective in this new phase of knowledge and technology transfer is to ensure sustainability of the management and maintenance of its instrument on budget transparency and openness of data on Public Finances in the PALOP-TL at the end of the implementation of phase II of the project. This Action will complement the technical advice and capacity building provided by PRO PALOP-TL programme."}, {"bbox": [97, 760, 360, 787], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 4. Fight against corruption"}, {"bbox": [97, 799, 1133, 929], "category": "Text", "text": "a. In Guinea-Bissau, the negative impact of transnational organized crime, in particular drug and human trafficking and related cross-cutting crimes, corruption, and money laundering, has been recognized at the highest level by the authorities and its combat has become a national priority. Thus, the UN decided to support national authorities to improve peacekeeping capacity, addressing the drivers of conflict that undermine social cohesion and can lead to violent conflict."}, {"bbox": [97, 944, 1133, 1050], "category": "Text", "text": "b. The National Strategy for Combating Corruption of Guinea-Bissau 2021-2030 established by the Government with the support of the UNDP establishes the general political framework and the priorities of legislative, institutional, and societal policy to be followed by the country, on good governance and the fight against corruption for the period between 2021 and 2030."}, {"bbox": [97, 1063, 1133, 1276], "category": "Text", "text": "The Strategy has the following objectives: Promote a culture of integrity, transparency, and accountability, as well as modernize and improve services in Public Administration; promote public awareness of the corrosive nature and devastating consequences of corruption and install in them a culture of leadership and advocacy in preventing and combating corruption and a culture of \"zero tolerance\" to corruption; increase the effectiveness of institutions for preventing and combating corruption, completing the legal and institutional framework at the level of good international practices; promote awareness, commitment and political leadership in preventing and combating corruption and unwavering decision-making to implement concrete measures of \"zero tolerance\" to corruption, with a view to defending and safeguarding the public good."}, {"bbox": [97, 1287, 1133, 1474], "category": "Text", "text": "c. The (general) corruption approaches will be used for political and administrative corruption; the corruption specifically related to PFM will need more technical measures indicated in chapter 3.2. Financial corruption in Guinea-Bissau is a serious problem and a mechanism politicians and civil servants use to misuse public resources. It is therefore necessary to improve fiscal operations transparency, predictability and control of budget execution, alignment of national strategies and policies and external controls of public spending. There are also significant weaknesses in public procurement that need to be addressed, namely a better management of public tenders and more consistency in the awarding of contracts."}, {"bbox": [97, 1485, 1133, 1592], "category": "Text", "text": "d. The 2019 IMF governance technical assistance mission in Guinea-Bissau identified key governance vulnerabilities in the wage bill management. A proposal to enhance its transparency leveraging blockchain technology was one of the winning projects of the IMF Anti-Corruption Challenge in 2020 and there is scope for scaling-up that solution. With continued ownership of the authorities and the support of international partners, the"}, {"bbox": [1131, 1680, 1144, 1701], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "7"}]