The Integrity Plan is a tool for managing risk of corruption and integrity risks. Individual organisations serve as proof that the Integrity Plan can be a very effective tool, but its performance does depend on how well one is trained to use it. This web page provides the basic information on how to draft and implement the Integrity Plan and what practices have proven to be the most effective.

What is the Integrity Plan?

The Integrity Plan informs about the risks related to your work.

Any activity involves certain risks and regardless of what we do, things can go wrong. In our private lives, we are normally well aware of these risks: we understand that thieves may steal our property unless we lock the front door, and that reckless crossing of the street may ultimately result in the loss of life. In performing one’s work duties, the consequences of ill-considered actions are usually less fateful (or they may even affect just other people), more remote, and at times also intangible. When focusing on our work duties, we are therefore less mindful of such consequences and may even not be aware of them. The drafting of the Integrity Plan is therefore an opportunity to dedicate more time to the risks, while the adopted document enables a permanent overview of the risks which you or your co-workers have come up with in the drafting process. The Integrity Plan is therefore a collection of risks in your organisation.

The Integrity Plan contains measures to prevent the risks from occurring.

Sooner or later, risks can materialise. Consequently, once we have familiarised ourselves with the risk, it makes sense to consider whether certain measures could be adopted to reduce the likelihood of its occurring, or to prevent it altogether. One of the purposes of the Integrity Plan is for organisations to set one-time, occasional, or full-time activities which they will carry out in order to prevent the identified risks from materialising. Once these measures have been signed into force by the head, they become mandatory guidelines for carrying out work tasks, and it is consequently the duty of every employee to learn about them.

Risks

In their operations and the implementation of their competence, public- and private sector organisations are exposed to certain risks. Contemporary good-governance guidelines require both the management and other staff to identifiy those risks; to design the measures to eliminate the risks or reduce the likelihood of their occurring; to carry out these measures consistently; and to report on that.

A special group of risks encompasses the risks of corrupt and unethical conduct, conduct lacking integrity, and other unlawful conduct, which certain public-sector organisations must manage with the aid of Integrity Plans.

Measures

Measures consist of all the activities of an entity which contribute to the reduction or elimination of risks. Measures are often focused on increased supervision but may also include other forms of reorganising an entity’s operations which eliminate risk factors.