The document summarizes Colombia's efforts to fight corruption through initiatives undertaken by various stakeholders, including the government, civil society, private sector, and international organizations. It describes some of the key initiatives, such as the Presidential Program to Combat Corruption established by the government in 1998. It also discusses the role of civil society groups like Colombiemos and citizen oversight groups, as well as private sector associations. International organizations such as the OAS and World Bank provided support through agreements like the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. The initiatives aimed to strengthen anti-corruption laws and increase transparency, accountability, and civic participation.

1. Abstract— The purpose of this paper is to conduct an overall
scanning for the different initiatives undertaken by the
different stakeholders (Government, Civil society, Private
Sector, and International organizations) in Colombia to fight
corruption. Assuming that any successful initiative to fight
corruption is built on a multi dimension strategy, integrating
the different actors together. Moreover the paper is exploring
weather these initiatives were translated in the indicators and
numbers or not. This paper is one of the studies to abstract the
lessons learned, and the best practices, in order to apply it in
other different countries, with the same context
Keywords—Corruption , Colombia, Best Practices
I. INTRODUCTION
Corruption is considered a worldwide phenomena, no
country is immune against it. It is noticed worldwide, that the
consequences of the phenomena is much more severe in the
developing countries and on the poor. That’s why
international and national efforts has been exerted in order to
fight corruption and enhance good governance in the last
decade, as these two components are considered as essential
threat for democracy and development, specially in the
developing countries.
Colombia as many other developing countries is suffering
from a lot of problems like poverty, illiteracy,
unemployment…, but the most crucial problems are crime,
violence & drugs, which makes Colombia in a very bad
position among world countries.
Despite of all of these problems, Colombia is exerting big
efforts with co-operation of all the stakeholders,
(governmental, private sector, civil society and international
actors) in order to fight corruption, and the interesting thing is
that it progressed very well in the governance & Anti -
corruption indicators world wide.
Colombia may not be a model of government integrity, but
it is an example of a country making gains in the fight against
corruption, it is essential to note that Colombia is also a
country taking steps required to meet its international
obligations.
According to control of corruption indicator (WGI) that is
produced from the World Bank, Colombia improved from
34.5 in 1996 to 50.2 in 2008, Also the Transparency
International, CPI, indicated that Colombia's index has
increased from 2.2 score in 1998, till 3.7 in 2009.
In this paper, we are exploring Colombia's case in fighting
Author is a researcher working in governance and anti corruption, in the
Social Contract Center, a Joint project between UNDP and the Information &
Decision support center – Egyptian Government (e-mail:
mmaher@idcc.gov.eg).
corruption, as one of the most important cases for fighting
corruption in Latin America and on the world in general.
This paper consists of three main sections; the first is
illustrating facts about corruption in Colombia, the second is
showing the initiatives exerted by the different national &
international stakeholders in order to fight corruption, and
finally the third section is surveying Colombia's development
on the governance & anti - corruption international indicators.
II.BRIEF ABOUT CORRUPTION IN COLOMBIA
Colombia has a long tradition of constitutional government.
The Liberal and Conservative parties, founded in 1848 and
1849 respectively, are two of the oldest surviving political
parties in the Americas. However, tensions between the two
have frequently erupted into violence. Since the 1960s,
government forces, left-wing insurgents and right-wing
paramilitaries have been engaged in the continent's longest-
running armed conflict. Fuelled by the cocaine trade, this
escalated dramatically in the 1980s. Nevertheless, in the
recent decade (2000s) the violence has decreased
significantly. In 2010, it was declared that Colombia had the
world's sixth highest risk of terrorism.
Colombia is a standing middle power with the fourth largest
economy in Latin America. However, inequality and unequal
distribution of wealth are still widespread. According to the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, "there has been a decrease in the poverty rate in recent
years, but around half of the population continues to live
under the poverty line" as of 2008-2009. 1
Colombia has a long history of conflicts – like many other
nations – which induced a government mainly focusing on
political stability than combating crime and corruption. The
emergence of the drug trade in Colombia gave rise to a level
of corruption unmatched by any other period in the country’s
history. Drug trafficking money progressively spread
throughout the different levels & branches of public power in
Colombia, dashing values, sacrificing principles, buying
political leaders, judges, policemen, soldiers, reporters, and
academics from the municipal to the national level.
The drug cartels exercised mass power through corruption;
many who resisted fighting corruption were murdered.
Perhaps, the most severe event happened in the 1990
presidential campaign when three presidential candidates were
murdered. Among those killed was (Luis Carlos Galán), the
candidate highly favored to win the election. Galán was
determined to combat drug trafficking and the consequential
problem of corruption.2
Since 1952, there were lack of discussion of corruption;
there were two possible explanations for that. First, the
concept had not yet become an issue for discussion anywhere
nationally or internationally. Second, favoritism, nepotism,
Fighting corruption, lessons learned from
international experiences: Colombia
Mai Maher ElGammal

2. and gratification weren't considered to be corrupted act from a
cultural perspective.
Although the reasons of corruption vary from one country to
another, according to its policies, bureaucratic traditions,
political environment, and social history, but there are
common features that shape a suitable environment for
corruption growing, which are; too much authority given to
public officials with absence of clear rules defining their
duties, coinciding with discretionary abuse, and lack of
accountability to the public.
The monopoly power of the public sector can lead to
corruption, in addition to the weak civil society organizations.
Not all of the foregoing factors have to be present in order for
corruption to exist, but the presence of all, or most, of the
factors can increase the risk of corrupt practices.
Some reasons that formulated corruption in Colombia are
historical forms of corruption in public employment along
with traditional forms of smuggling, and tax evasion, the
manipulation of national and international financial markets
with the active connivance of offshore operations whose
actions are legal in their jurisdictions, violence whether
political or related to the drug trade, and the psychological and
the social background of the people who perceived corruption
as an un condemned action.
Corruption affected Colombia severely on all bases
economically, politically, and socially. A recent U.N. study
demonstrated that, taken on a worldwide basis, the costs of
corruption committed by public employees was ten times
greater than the costs of illegal acts committed by common
criminals.
A study on criminality in Colombia indicated that, while all
crimes were growing at an annual rate of 39.7 percent, those
described as committed by public employees were growing by
164.1 percent.3
Hoggard estimated in his paper: "preventing corruption in
Colombia: the need for an enhanced state-level approach"4
,
that the yearly per capita cost of corruption is 6,100 US $,
which represents one percent of the Colombia’s Gross
Domestic Product. In addition, a World Bank report estimated
that the annual cost of corruption in Colombia is 2.6 US
$billion, which is equivalent to 60% of the nation’s debt.
Other evidences showed that the Office of the Attorney
General has detected 2,092 illegal contracts between
November and December 1997. In Cundinamarca alone, there
were illegal contracts for more than 59, 000 million pesos
right after a memo from the attorney general ordered strict
adherence to Law 80 of 1993.
In 2002, three Bogotá city council members were arrested for
accepting bribes, estimated at US $37,000, to vote against a
city ordinance prohibiting peddlers on the streets. In the same
year, Colombian officials began investigating sixty members
of the national police force in connection with the
disappearance of over US $2 million in anti-drug aid from the
United States.
Corruption in Colombia is attached to violence and drugs
trade, for example In November 6, 1985, armed groups have
attacked the Palace of Justice killed ninety-five people,
including seventeen members of the Supreme Court. It was
suspected that the drug mafias wanted to destroy the files or
certain military people.
Thirty-three journalists assassinated for their standing
against corruption and drugs, Colombia come at the top of the
list of the countries with a high mass media murdered. Also
the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan,
who was opponent of the mafias and corruption.
Despite this increasing rate of corruption and the increasing
coverage of the local media on corruption, which increased
the coverage on terrorism. Corruption has made many
wounds on Colombia, from economic distortion to murder; the
one thing everyone agrees with, therefore, is that something
has to be done, and the sooner the better.
There where many factors that affected in pushing forward
for fighting corruption, which was the terrible price those who
have resisted corruption had paid, from assassination,
kidnapping, losing job, and other harm that resulted from
defending integrity. In addition to the rise in social prestige of
the National Police, which prior to 1995 was perceived as
corrupted, and this resulted in more trust in them.
The connection of corruption to violence & drug trade
made the image of Colombia so bad among the world, that’s
what made the international organizations and many big
countries tends to push forward to fighting corruption and
give support to this issue. We can't deny the role of the
political well which made the president candidates build their
presidential programs upon fighting corruption and what
accompanies it with violence & drugs, in order to give
political existence more legitimacy.
III. WHAT DID COLOMBIA DO TO FIGHT CORRUPTION?
The interesting thing about Colombia's case in fighting
corruption is that it didn’t work in one direction to fight
corruption, but it is a combination of efforts for different
stakeholders for the (Government, civil society, private sector,
and international co-operation). That resulted in a remarkable
improvement in this field.
A.The Role of the Government
In November 1998, President Pastrana (presidency period
1998 -2002) established the Presidential Program to Combat
Corruption (PPLC) in order to reform public administration,
and combat corruption. This program is supervised by the
Vice President. The general objective of the Program was to
design and implement mechanisms to prevent, control, and
sanction corruption in Colombia.
The Presidential Program had several objectives: like
improving the efficiency and transparency of public entities;
promoting government employee conduct based on ethical
principles and values; strengthening civil society participation;
and establishing formal methods of cooperation between
government institutions and between the government and civil
society to combat corruption.
In further presidential initiatives to combat corruption,
President Álvaro Uribe (president since 2002) issued Decree
2170 to establish additional mechanisms designed to reduce

3. the risk of corruption. Decree 2170 provided that citizen
oversight groups shall regulate the hiring processes of public
entities, public contracting, moreover, it asked government
entities to publish contract terms on the Internet or through
some other public circulation method4
.
Although, the government played a big role to strengthen
legislation that fight corruption, but some surveys conducted
by the World Bank indicated that the parliament has lost its
credibility, 71% of those polled believed the Colombian
parliament was completely dishonest; the percentage was
higher than any other public agency.
In terms of specifically addressing the problem of
corruption, the legislature has passed three laws in the past
decade in favor of fighting corruption. Law 190 of 1995, the
Anti- Corruption Statute, endeavors to combat corruption by
regulating public service, criminalizing certain corrupt acts,
such as bribery and embezzlement, and providing for
increased access by research agencies to the government
financial system. The Anti-Corruption Statute provides a
foundation upon which Colombia can prevent and sanction
acts of corruption. However, the existence of the law is not the
problem but the enforcement of the law is the problem.
There was also Law 80 of 1993 of the Public Contracting
Statute, which creates procedural safeguards aimed at
promoting free competition, transparency, advertising, and
objective selection in public contracting.
Through Law 412 of 1997, the legislature approved and
adopted the provisions of the Inter America convention
against corruption (IACAC). In addition to laws criminalizing
acts of corruption, Congress has taken steps to ensure that the
public can monitor government agencies through freedom of
information laws. Hoggard expressed in his paper that the
problem is not only in issuing laws, and legislations, but in
putting them into act.5
The Colombian legislature has adapted laws that prohibit
various acts of corruption. Additionally, having adopted the
IACAC and its corresponding provisions should strengthen
domestic laws by providing regional support for enforcement.
Colombian law gives citizens the freedom to access
government information. But is this enough, because there are
lots of actions to be taken in order to guarantee increasing
the risks of corruption, and ensure that the existing laws are
not only ink on paper.
The government also has tried to increase efficiency &
transparency through establishing an internet portal for the
government; and electronic publication of information
required of all agencies. Moreover, it provided Systematic re-
engineering and reform of agency-specific processes; and
provided training to public employees for keeping standards
for public contracting, budgeting, and other recurring
processes. And one of the main criticism to this was the high
percentage of illiterate people & or even those who don’t have
computers or internet to access the government portals.
Moreover the government has tried to enhance ethics &
values, through providing training for public employees in
various agencies for the improvement of the service culture.
Inclusion of ethics and values as topics in the existing nation-
wide training, and designing of a management course for
public sector employees6
, and it added more modern
investigatory technology, among these prosecutors with full
powers, accountants, computer-assisted audits, electronic
surveillance of financial transfers, and communications of
various types.
B.The Role of the Civil Society
In order to strengthen civil society participation, Hoggard
stated that: the Presidential Program developed a project
entitled Colombiemos in order to create a network of citizens
dedicated to fighting corruption, in 2004; more than 13,000
people had joined Colombiemos. It acts as a forum by which
citizens have the opportunity to learn more about combating
corruption and participate in anti-corruption efforts. The
Bulletin and the Web page of Colombiemos provide
information related to anti-corruption including tools that
citizens can use to monitor public administration.
Through Colombiemos, citizens participate in oversight
groups assigned to monitor investment activities or contracts
made by governmental entities. Citizen oversight groups are
protected in Colombia by law, which give them the authority
to monitor the allocation of government funds; the right to
oversee the public contracting process; the ability to request
documents from public officials as a means of ensuring ethical
conduct; and the right to inform the public about oversight
programs.
C.The Role of the Private Sector
The Private Sector has a big role to play in fighting
corruption as their business is affected a lot by corrupted act,
in the form of bribes, delayed or handicapped projects. The
Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has been
interested in studying & evaluating corruption, and in its
report “Private Sector Initiative to Combat Corruption
“Probidad” Project", it mainly focused in highlighting fighting
corruption initiative in Colombia, conducted by the private
sector.
The Colombian project (Probidad) undertaken by the
Colombian Confederation of Chambers of Commerce
(Confecamaras) mainly focused on promoting ethical
standards specially within Colombian private sector,
advocating passage of reform legislation and regulations with
a focus on procurement, building capacity for journalists to
report on ethical standards and transparency, and outreach
activities including building of a Probidad website, and
producing and disseminating publications. 7
D.The Role of International Cooperation
Corruption is a global problem that crosses national
boundaries; therefore, Colombia cannot rely only on national
efforts to combat corruption. Many international
organizations, such as the Organization of American States,
Transparency International, World Bank, United Nations, and
the Inter-American Development Bank make vital

4. contributions to the anti-corruption effort in Colombia and
many other countries all over the world.
Corruption is a global problem that crosses national
boundaries; therefore, Colombia cannot rely only on national
efforts to combat corruption. Many international
organizations, such as the Organization of American States,
Transparency International, World Bank, United Nations, and
the Inter-American Development Bank make vital
contributions to the anti-corruption effort in Colombia and
many other countries all over the world.
In 1996, the Organization of American States OAS adopted
the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (IACAC),
aiming at supporting and strengthening the development of
methods within each member state necessary for the
prevention, and fighting corruption. Moreover, the IACAC
acts as an international monitoring system to ensure that each
state is taking effective anti-corruption measures and enforcing
them. Colombia has adapted the IACC; Colombia complies
with many, but not all, of the main requirements of the
IACAC.8
Since 1999, Transparency International (TI) in Colombia
has designed and implemented lots of integrity activities. One
of them was the corruption perception index (CPI), which was
used to raise awareness about corruption, and act as a
monitoring tool, to assess integrity in the future, but it also
cooperated with the government to reduce corrupt practices,
and improve their rank on the CPI, and other corruption
measurements.
The World Bank (WB) is co-operating with Colombia and
many other countries through supporting anti corruption
initiatives, In case of Colombia, the WB has offered technical
support, like workshops/courses on anti-corruption, judicial
reform courses, and diagnostic surveys, which was publicly
published afterward. The Colombian government has used the
survey results as a basis for demonstrating the need to address
corruption in the president’s 2002-2006 National
Development Plans, which was later approved by the
Colombian legislature.
As a member state of the U.N., Colombia adheres to the
Declaration against Corruption and Bribery in International
Commercial Transactions. In December 2000, Colombia has
signed the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime (UNCTOC), and it ratified it in 2004. In
addition, it signed the U.N Convention against Corruption in
December 2003. Colombia was selected, in 2002, as one of
the countries to participate in the pilot project of the U.N.
Global Programme against Corruption. The project, of a
budget of $500,000, with duration of eighteen months, aimed
at providing the Colombian government with assistance in
fighting corruption.
Colombia, as a borrowing member of the Inter American
development bank (IDB), has used IDB assistance in some
developmental projects and to combat corruption. In 1995, the
IDB approved the Social Solidarity Network (SSN) loan to aid
the poor in numerous Colombian municipalities. The SSN
staff was concerned about the potential for corruption in the
context of the transparency of selecting the beneficiaries of
the loan.
In response to this concern, the IDB, and one of the
Colombian universities (Universidad de los Andes), and the
SSN staff cooperated together in order to design an innovative
plan where about 200 university students spent a semester
monitoring all aspects of the SSN project in various towns.
The students gathered information, which was sent to the
Universidad de los Andes, where experts analyzed it and use it
for monitoring and evaluation.
The successful thing about this project is using academia
and students (the civil society), in the monitoring and
evaluation process, which is considered a process of
integrating citizens in fighting corruption. The success of the
plan permitted the IDB to use it, or similar plans, in
subsequent projects.
The IDB also had a very good intervention in enhancing
good governance, by developing a program in order to
strengthening the Controller’s Office and the Auditor
General’s Office. Through helping improving fiscal control
and establish a reliable means of both monitoring government
spending and reporting corruption. However, Colombia’s
experiences with the IDB have not always been positive. In
April 2000, the IDB suspended a loan of US $6 million to
Colombia after a parliamentary corruption scandal was
discovered. Such penalty actions are necessary and effective
because they force the government to appropriately address
corruption problem.
IV. NUMBERS TALK LOUDER
Most of the countries are making big efforts to fight
corruption, but the question is what is the impact? Many
countries and international organizations, are using indicators
& surveys in order to measure the impact of the various
initiatives in fighting corruption, and also to know where they
stand among the world, and how much they improved.
In Colombia case, it was estimated that: there is savings of
242 billion pesos, due to more efficient processes. Moreover,
there is more receiving of denunciations, it reached 4135 (with
a 40% increase). It was noticed that there is more
transparency; and all government agencies are online and
publishing contracting information.
More than 10,000 Colombians signed up for the Citizen
Oversight group (Colombiemos) campaign. This indicated
more raising in people awareness and more participation from
them in fighting corruption. Large-scale indicators and
surveys on corruption & governance showing improvement.
According to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), issued
by the Transparency International, the international image of
Colombia has improved, after moving from the 79th rank out
of 84 country (score of 2.2) in 1998, up to 75 rank (score of
3.7) in 2009, among 180 country worldwide (on a scale of 0 to
10, and the higher the better).9
On the World Governance Indicators (WGI), produced by the
World Bank, Colombia has progressed on the level of the
control of corruption indicator from 34.5 score in 1996, to
50.2 score in 2008 (on a scale from 0 to 100, the higher the
better).9

5. By having a look on other governance indicators related to
corruption, we can find that, the voice & accountability
indicator also has increased from 34.4 in 1669 to 39.4 in 2008,
and the rule of law indicator increased from 25.2 in 1996 to
37.8 in 2009. Colombia did not progress on the other
governance indicators, like government effectiveness,
regulatory quality, and political stability. On the regional
level, Colombia progressed very well on the fight against
corruption, compared to other Latin Americas countries10
.
According to the Global Integrity Index, issued by the
Global Integrity, revealed that Colombia's overall score is 71
out of 100 in 2008 (Moderate), where Anti corruption law is
very strong, Anti corruption agencies are moderate, rule of
law is weak, and law enforcement is moderate.(Global
integrity report: 2008)11
The global integrity report revealed that: "In Colombia, the
impact of paramilitary intimidation can be seen in the lack of
transparency in the judicial decision-making process, as
judges often worry about violent reprisals after issuing
decisions. At the same time, courts are often not accessible to
the average citizen because of bias, geographic location and
high costs. With low trust in the judicial system, the national
ombudsman continues to be the "most trusted institution for
citizen complaints [about] human rights violations." There are
no requirements for Colombian non-governmental
organizations to disclose their funding, but there is a growing
national movement towards transparency that has seen such
groups voluntarily release this information"12
According to the Global corruption barometer, 2009,
Among the 180 countries surveyed, seven are located in Latin
America and the Caribbean, of which Venezuela and
Paraguay are in the worst levels of corruption in private sector
practices in Latin America. Venezuela was ranked lowest
(158), followed by Paraguay (138), Nicaragua (134) and
Argentina (109), Colombia was ranked 70th, and Chile, at
number 23, was the least corrupted country in South America.
V.CONCLUSION
Although Colombia still has a lot to do in fighting
corruption, but currently it is moving on the right track. Even
if the country is suffering from severe problems (drugs,
crimes,….) like Colombia, it still can fight corruption, and
progress well. Fighting corruption cannot be done from only
one side, but it is an integrated strategy, where all the parties
work together in order to fight corruption.
Obviously, we cannot judge which intervention is the result
of the decrease in corruption, or the reason for the
improvements on the governance & anti -corruption
international indicators, that is to prove, whatever the
intervention is the most important thing that they all together
resulted in fighting corruption.
The political well, represented in the presidential program
for fighting corruption, makes a great reliability and
credibility for the system in fighting corruption, and makes the
initiatives for fighting corruption more institutionalized.
International organizations have done an impressive effort
in fighting corruption, as it acted as a supporter for the anti-
corruption initiatives and as a pressure group like suspending
grants when there is a corruption scandal.
Empowering civil society for fighting corruption is an
essential tool that is shown in creating Colombiemos in
Colombia, which acted as an oversight group and it raised
public awareness about corruption.
It is new to integrate the private sector in fighting
corruption initiatives, because
Using information technology, like internet governmental
services enables cheap and fast dissemination of information,
in addition to increasing government efficiency & integrity.
One criticism of using technology in fighting corruption (both
Colombiemos and the Presidential Program Web site) is that
both rely on the Internet and computers. Thus, important
anticorruption resources often are available only to well-
educated citizens with the financial means to own a computer.
This condition greatly limits the extent of participation by the
general population. Furthermore, it prevents involvement of
those who are most affected by corruption, the poor.
REFERENCES
[1] Wikipidia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia
[2] Hoggard, Shiloh," Preventing Corruption in Colombia: The Need For an
Enhanced State Level Approach", 2004.
http://www.ajicl.org/AJICL2004/vol212/Hoggard.pdf
[3] http://vigilanciaciudadana.tripod.com/
[4] Hoggard, Op. cit.
[5] Hoggard, Ibid
[6] Klitgaard, Robert," Modernization and transparency" Ministry of state
and administrative developemtn, January, 2008
http://www.ad.gov.eg/NR/rdonlyres/B24A675F-6DCF-48A4-8678-
1ADAB67790B7/1535/ModernizationandTransparency.ppt
[7] Kovach, Zlatko, " “Private Sector Initiative to Combat Corruption
“Probidad” Project", CIPE, 2005.
http://www.cipe.org/programs/evaluations/pdf/ColombiaEvaluation05.pdf
[8] Hoggard, Op. cit.
[9] Corruption Perception Index – Transparency International
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/
gcb/2009
[10] World Governance Indicators
http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/sc_chart.asp
[11] Global Integrity Index
http://report.globalintegrity.org/Colombia/2008
[12] Global Integrity Report
http://report.globalintegrity.org/Colombia/2008/scorecard
The Author has cooperated in developing a number of researches in
the field of governance & corruption, She had an intensive course in
Managing Global Governance in Germany, and she was an Intern in
Oslo Governance Center in Norway, in 2008, She worked before in
the surveys and polls field. Currently, she is working as a
Governance Specialist in the social Contract Centre, a joint Program
between the Egyptian Information & Decision Support Centre and
UNDP E-mail: mmaher@idsc.net.eg.