[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1164, 233], "category": "Text", "text": "mandates also exacerbate this dynamic. Corrupt officials (and those involved in organized crime and money laundering) take advantage of poor policies, generating illicit financial flows, some of which enable the importation of illicit money into licit markets, including those of the European Union."}, {"bbox": [97, 259, 1164, 419], "category": "Text", "text": "Moreover, poor in-country policy development, combined with the ease of cross-border business (legal and illegal), inherently means that no single country in the region can effectively counter corruption and the movement of corrupt money and assets. Despite multiple calls for collective action and interest in generating some national and regional policies aimed at combating corruption, departments in Honduras continue to suffer from fragmented and poor coordination in the prevention and prosecution of acts of corruption and in the seizure, confiscation, and recovery of assets linked to corruption."}, {"bbox": [97, 444, 1164, 551], "category": "Text", "text": "Therefore, it is necessary to promote comprehensive national anti-corruption policies that foresee inter-institutional coordination and can be easily replicated in other levels of government. These policies will promote actions in the preventive sphere that improve transparency and accountability, and also generate actions that contribute to detecting and mitigating corruption risks in the selected departments."}, {"bbox": [97, 577, 731, 604], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Systems for citizen reporting and follow-up on acts of corruption"}, {"bbox": [97, 630, 1164, 710], "category": "Text", "text": "Corruption severely affects Hondurans, especially the most vulnerable and excluded, who see their opportunities for access to basic services, justice, security, and participation limited. Corruption also affects the private sector, which faces higher costs and risks when investing and generating employment."}, {"bbox": [97, 736, 1164, 817], "category": "Text", "text": "This has increased citizens' fear of reporting acts of corruption because they may receive reprisals and put their integrity at risk. In the case of corruption, as in other Central American countries, Honduras does not have specific legislation for the protection of whistleblowers but only a Law for the Protection of Witnesses in criminal proceedings."}, {"bbox": [97, 842, 1164, 1001], "category": "Text", "text": "The Action will support the implementation of the Citizen Reporting System accompanied by a massive awareness and sensitization campaign on the importance of reporting acts constituting a crime or administrative misconduct (according to the country's current legislation) and the existence of the available reporting mechanism to increase citizens' confidence in its effectiveness in combating corruption and reduce citizens' fear of reporting acts of corruption. It will also support the design of legislation for protecting victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers in corruption cases."}, {"bbox": [97, 1027, 1164, 1134], "category": "Text", "text": "The Action will seek coordinated action between the State, civil society, the private sector, academia, and international cooperation, aimed at promoting a culture of integrity and transparency, strengthening institutional capacities to prevent and investigate corruption, guaranteeing the practical application of the law and encouraging citizen participation in social control."}, {"bbox": [97, 1163, 1164, 1243], "category": "Text", "text": "Additionally, this Action is not only focused on promoting and strengthening mechanisms for society to report, but also, to create strategies that reinforce normative and administrative processes to ensure the transparency and accountability in the entire process, from the moment it is reported to the moment it is punished."}, {"bbox": [97, 1272, 932, 1300], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Mechanisms for citizen participation through the Citizen Transparency Commissions"}, {"bbox": [97, 1325, 1164, 1405], "category": "Text", "text": "The Citizen Transparency Commissions (CCT) are citizen participation bodies that carry out social audits of municipal public management. However, even though the Law of Municipalities and its regulations declare that the establishment of Commissions is mandatory, not all mayors' offices comply with this provision."}, {"bbox": [97, 1431, 1164, 1564], "category": "Text", "text": "There still needs to be more transparency in municipal management, which negatively affects local development, the quality of public services, and citizen confidence in institutions. According to a Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) report, Honduras has a low score on the budget transparency index and a high perception of corruption, evidencing local governments' weaknesses. Additionally, a civil society organization \"C-Libre\" study established that only 9% of the municipalities comply with the minimum standards of active and passive transparency."}, {"bbox": [97, 1590, 1164, 1643], "category": "Text", "text": "Currently, local governments do not have sufficient and timely information on the use of their public resources, the execution of programs and projects, and the provision of services. This limits citizens' ability to exercise their right to"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1143, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 8 of 33"}]