In a newly released publication, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) emphasized the importance of stronger governance in times of health crisis.
Co-authored by the Director of the IMF’s Public Finance Department, Vitor Gaspar, the Director of the Strategy, Policy and Evaluation Department, Martin Mühleisen, and the Director of the Legal Department, Rhoda Weeks-Brown, the publication stressed that corruption was a problem before the crisis, but the COVID-19 pandemic made it worse.
In their analysis, the three authors identified three goals that countries need to tackle to fight corruption and establish good governance during the time of the Coronavirus.
Strengthening government responses to the pandemic, by providing economic survival tools to both citizens and businesses, must inevitably involve transparent and timely reporting.
In order to fight corruption, which is likely to increase with such measures, governments around the world need to implement ex-post audits and accountability procedures while working closely with the private sector and civil society.
In order to limit the deterioration of their public finances, countries must effectively combat the waste of funds in public spending, which is caused by corruption and, above all, combat tax evasion.
IMF officials have also argued that crises weaken citizens’ rust towards the state and its institutions. As a result, ethical and transparent behavior becomes vital in the face of high demand for health services.
On the other hand, any possible evidence of corruption could undermine crisis management and worsen the economic consequences.
The IMF explained that it had built in strengthened governance measures to monitor COVID-19-related expenditures, reminding that it had made rapid disbursements to cover urgent needs.
For their part, borrowing countries committed to publishing crisis-related government procurement contracts on Governmental websites, including the identity of the companies that were awarded these contracts and their actual beneficiaries, as well as conducting and publishing independent ex-post audits of crisis-related expenditures.
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