The Integrity for Investments Initiative (i3) is a five-year, $15.3 million project that supports anticorruption offices of the Government of the Philippines, primarily the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit. The project assists in the effective enforcement of anticorruption laws by improving skills, policies and systems. It works to improve corporate behavior of public corporations and private firms.

This USAID/Philippines project is contributes to the Partnership for Growth, a bilateral initiative. This United States – Philippines partnership works to promote sustainable and inclusive growth in the Philippines.

ACTIVITIES

In anticorruption enforcement, i3 extends training support to the Ombudsman’s Office and the Commission on Audit. In fiscal year 2015, about 900 auditors, investigators, prosecutors and regulators were trained through the support of the project.

i3 helps anticorruption offices in advancing legislation that supports the efficient and effective prosecution of corruption. By providing an analysis of the costs and benefits of additional courts, the project helped passed the amendments to the charter of the Sandiganbayan. The legislation created two additional courts and instituted procedural changes to further hasten the pace of corruption trials. i3 also assists anticorruption offices in strengthening their internal policies to facilitate investigator and prosecutor cooperation.

i3 assists the Commission on Audit in enhancing performance audit to better assess the results of government spending. The partnership with the commission is also working towards enhancing other aspects of audit operations.

The project supports the enhancement of internal systems of anticorruption offices. i3 helps the Ombudsman’s Office and the Commission on Audit in establishing an electronic system that improves the management of voluminous case records. It also assists regulatory offices, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Governance Commission for public corporations in risk-based monitoring of covered firms and agencies.

RESULTS

i3's partner anticorruption agencies made notable progress. In the first 5 months of 2015, close to two-thirds of cases that underwent full trial in the anticorruption court for high-ranking officials were successfully prosecuted. In 2014, trained stated auditors completed fraud audits questioning public transactions over $7million in total. In 2015, almost 23 thousand private sector entities were penalized for fraud and misconduct, doubling the volume from the prior year. Since 2011, 48 non-performing public corporations have been abolished/deactivated.

GOAL

Contribute to inclusive growth by reducing the costs of corruption to investments and trade, and promoting open and fair competition.

OBJECTIVES

• Improve the enforcement effectiveness of anticorruption institutions
• Reduce opportunities for public sector corruption
• Improve corporate governance in both the private and public sectors