Publications

Being a Trusted and Respected Partner: the APS Integrity Framework

A research report by Nikolas Kirby and Simone Webbe, that considers whether the APS’ integrity framework is ‘fit for purpose’ for 2030 and beyond, in order to maintain broader public trust in the APS. The authors contend the APS must aim to be an institution seen as having integrity – consistent, coherent, legitimate, praiseworthy, virtuous and trustworthy.

Corporations, Business and Social Trust

In this research report commissioned by the British Council, Nikolas Kirby and Andrew Kirton explore the mechanisms that drive social trust and the relationship that corporations have with this process. The findings of this research, suggest that while corporations and businesses more generally are increasingly influential in determining how much citizens trust one another, they appear to be largely overlooked in literature and studies of social trust.

'Do corporations have a duty to be trustworthy?' Journal of the British Academy, (2018).

In this article, published in the Journal of the British Academy, Nikolas Kirby, Andrew Kirton and Aisling Crean explore whether corporations have a moral duty to be trustworthy, to bear the cost of being so and thus contribute to resolving the current crisis of trust. The paper also considers where the state and other social actors have strong reason to protect and enforce such moral rights, while acknowledging that other actors have similar obligations to be trustworthy.

Assessing the impact of remuneration on the levels of corruption in the street level bureaucrats of Pakistan

Waqar Ali Khan assesses the impact of remuneration on the levels of corruption in the street level bureaucrats of Pakistan. It not only aims to identify certain flaws in the current framework of the Civil Service of Pakistan that calls for a targeted civil service restructuring but also makes certain recommendations to transform it on the basis of incentivising the civil servants through increasing their pay.

2020, Building Integrity WP

Public institutional integrity in education: A case study of the Department of Education of Ceará (Brazil)

Carolina Martinelli’s paper addresses how to build integrity in public education institutions and improve learning outcomes by analysing a specific case of success: the public education institution of the State of Ceará, Northeast Brazil. It provides an overview of education in Ceará and the increase in education outcomes achieved in the last 15 years; analyses the improvement of education in Ceará through the lens of public integrity theory; and concludes with a set of key recommendations on how to build integrity in public education institutions.

September 2020, Building Integrity WP

Citizens' amendments to the Ecuadorean constitution: A step towards building integrity in the public sector?

Karen Sichel Arciniega’s report assesses Ecuador’s Citizen Participation and Social Oversight Council with respect to its three main functions: fighting corruption; promoting citizen participation and social oversight; and appointing independent public authorities based on their merits.

September 2020, Building Integrity WP

Critical issues for strengthening supreme audit institutions in developing countries

Innocent Twebaze Mbaguta assesses how to strengthen supreme audit institutions (SAIs) in developing countries. SAIs carry out the external audit of public sector bodies to promote the efficiency, accountability and transparency of public administrations. This paper explores how SAIs in developing countries can sustain their mandate in while operating in fragile democratic systems, addressing five critical issues: independence, accountability, relevance and citizen engagement, strategies to curb corruption and professionalisation.

August 2020, Building Integrity WP

The necessary dialogue between big data and trust in Brazil's tax administration

Anelize Lenzi Ruas de Almeida’s paper seeks to understand how new technologies, especially big data and data analytics, have been utilised to improve tax compliance in Brazil by increasing trust in its revenue service. It applies the Institution-first conception of Public Integrity in the Brazilian context as an instrument for building trust in the tax authority to foster voluntary compliance and offers a range of practical recommendations.

August 2020, Building Integrity WP

Police reform in Georgia

Farid Osmanov analyses the sweeping reforms of the Georgian police that were implemented by the government of Mikheil Saakashvili. It examines their impact and analyses the reforms using Nikolas Kirby’s framework of public institutional integrity. The study also differentiates between so-called ‘low’ and ‘high’ policing, a term borrowed from Canadian policing expert Jean-Paul Brodeur and applied to the Georgian context by Alexander Kupatadze, to examine the effect of reforms at both levels.

May 2020, Building Integrity WP

The Transformation of the Chilean Army: Building Institutional Integrity and Legitimacy Through the Democratization Process of Chile

Ricardo Batarce and Lucía Soriano unpack the democratization of the Chilean Army since 1990. In this working paper, the authors analyse this process using the theoretical framework of institutional integrity created by Nikolas Kirby. They argue that while the Chilean Army has fulfilled many of the core components of this theory since democratization, the Army remains vulnerable to corruption because the modernization process neglected the crucial 'robustness' component of institutional integrity.

February 2019, Building Integrity W

The Theoretical Framework of Public Integrity and Institutional Changes of Georgia's Tax Administration

In this policy report, Rusudan Kemularia applies Nikolas Kirby’s institution-first conception of public integrity to the Georgian Revenue Service. The report discusses the elements of an ‘institution-first’ conception of public integrity, such as legitimate purpose, legitimate pursuit, commitment and robustness in relation with significant institutional changes made to the tax administration of Georgia between 2003-2012. The report closes with evidence-based policy recommendations for building public integrity and trust toward tax administration.

November 2018, Building Integrity WP

How auditing Can be Directed Against Corruption: The Case of Brazil's Municipality-Facing Auditing Programme

The wrongful exercise of authority over the use of public money is a major issue for public governance in many countries. As a tool of public governance, auditing is often directed against public office-holders' corrupt activities and behaviour. In this paper, Sergio Seabra seeks to advance our knowledge about applying auditing for the purposes of curbing corruption, through an analysis of Brazil's Municipality-Facing Auditing Programme.

July 2018, Building Integrity WP

An 'Institution First' Conception of Public Integrity

Corruption threatens institutional trust, legitimacy and development across the world. However, conceptual and empirical challenges surrounding corruption often lead to ineffective solutions. In response, Nikolas Kirby presents a new conception of public integrity: a more praiseworthy, and robust governance goal. Outlining the conceptual structure of public integrity, Kirby demonstrates how we can pursue governance practices that go beyond simply addressing corruption and towards establishing institutions that are truly worthy of trust.

May 2018, Building Integrity WP

Investigating Integrity: A Multi-Disciplinary Literature Review

For a concept that is so widely used, the lack of scholarly consensus with respect to the meaning of integrity is striking. To better understand the foundational concept underpinning public integrity, this working paper investigates the academic treatment of integrity across seven disciplines. The review focuses on two distinct questions: how is the concept of integrity deployed across a broad range of disciplines; and, what can be learned from these disciplines about the concept of integrity?

May 2018, Building Integrity WP

Curbing Corruption in Azerbaijan

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Azerbaijan inherited a corrupt and nepotistic bureaucracy. In 2012 a public institution called ASAN was created with a remit to provide diverse public services from registering births to issuing customs declarations. In this paper, Farid Osmanov discusses some of ASAN’s innovations, such as ASAN imza (easy signature), which allows citizens to use a mobile phone as an electronic ID. Osmanov also considers how institutions within systemically corrupt contexts can contribute to incremental change.

November 2017, Building Integrity WP

On Culture and Corruption

Robert Klitgaard tackles the thorny issue of cultural types that tend to be linked to high levels of corruption. This is the case for cultures that place especially strong emphasis on family values, for example. But if culture is linked to corruption, should policymakers aim for cultural change? In arguing for a reframing of the issue, Klitgaard explains the merits of “convening”: bringing together locals with tacit knowledge of cultural value systems with those who are clued into corruption data and theories.

July 2017, Blavatnik School of Government Working Paper, BSG017/020

Building Towards Institutional Integrity: An Australian Case Study

Dr. Nikolas Kirby and Professor Ken Smith of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) present research commissioned for the largest independent Australian Public Service Review in thirty years. This presentation took place at the 2019 OECD Anti Corruption and Integrity Forum in Paris.

Nikolas Kirby and Ken Smith, 'Building Towards Institutional Integrity: An Australian Case Study,' Paris, March, 2019.

Public Integrity: An 'Institution-First' Conception

Nikolas Kirby presents an 'institution-first' conception of public integrity at a high level workshop in May, 2018. View the video to hear Dr. Kirby develop a novel conception of public integrity that is both robust and centred on building trust in institutions, moving the discussion of public integrity away from anti-corruption.

Nikolas Kirby, 'Public Integrity: An 'Institution-First' Conception, May 2018

Building Integrity: Learning from Success

Robert Klitgaard delivered a lecture about drawing lessons from careful analysis of examples of positive change. View the full video to hear him discuss institutions that have managed to raise their level of public integrity.

Robert Klitgaard, “Building Integrity: Learning from Success”, June 2017