Effectiveness of Preventive Anti-Corruption Tools with Emphasis on Asset Declaration and Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Abstract

Considering recent findings in the literature that increasing investments in corruption prevention do not bring the desired results, this article deals with the issue of monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of preventive anti-corruption tools. Concretisation is provided by selecting two globally widespread tools, i.e., asset declaration and disclosure of conflict of interest. The primary point is that implementing preventive anti-corruption tools without adequate verification of their effect in practice, can lead to an anti-corruption bureaucracy that does not contribute to the success of corruption prevention. The research on the perception of the effectiveness of asset declaration and disclosure of conflicts of interest, the results of which are presented for the first time here, showed that in the field of corruption prevention, significant improvements could be made by placing preventive anti-corruption tools more on substantive, and less on formalistic, grounds.