OECD Public Governance Reviews OECD Integrity Review of the State of Mexico Enabling a Culture of Integrity

Preface Foreword Acknowledgements Abbreviations and acronyms Executive summary Key findings Key recommendations 1 Adapting the anti-corruption system to the needs of the State of Mexico Strengthening the governance of the Anti-corruption System of the State of Mexico and Municipalities The Anti-corruption System of the State of Mexico and Municipalities sets the basis for a co-ordinated approach to integrity in all branches and levels of government The Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico needs to be included in the Anti-Corruption System to ensure its comprehensiveness To further strengthen co-ordination, additional integrity-related public sector institutions should be invited to meetings of the SAEMM on an ad-hoc basis Establishing sub commissions for prevention and enforcement within the Executive Commission could improve the quality of technical discussions and strengthen implementation A dedicated contact point in the public institutions for liaising with the SAEMM would facilitate the mainstreaming of integrity Implementing conflict of interest management policies for the Co-ordination Committee to avoid policy capture The risk of capture in the Citizen Participation Committee should be mitigated The Executive Secretariat role as a technical support body for both, the Co-ordination Committee and the Citizen Participation Committee, could be formalised Mainstreaming of integrity policies in the Executive Branch Integrity Units could replace the Ethics Committees to ensure effective mainstreaming of integrity policies and practices in entities Ensuring integrity at the municipal level The implementation of the Municipal Anti-corruption Systems is lagging behind The SAEMM could mandate municipalities to design targeted integrity plans to build the necessary level of maturity and capacities before setting up the Municipal Anti-corruption Systems References 2 Developing a strategic approach to public integrity in the State of Mexico Setting the right framework for integrity The Anti-corruption System has promoted the strategic development of a state anti-corruption policy. However, key priority areas could be included The Co-ordination Committee could define an action plan with clear roles and responsibilities among public entities to implement and monitor integrity policies Monitoring and evaluation integrity policies To monitor the implementation of the anti-corruption policy, the Executive Commission would need to ensure the development of clear and measurable indicators with baselines, milestones and targets In order to evaluate the effectiveness of integrity policies, the SAEMM could consider outsourcing the evaluation to ensure its independence References 3 Towards a culture of public integrity in the State of Mexico Setting high standards for integrity in the State of Mexico The State of Mexico’s regulatory framework for public ethics is consistent with Mexico’s National Anti-Corruption System To improve clarity and ownership of public employees at state and municipal levels, the State of Mexico could engage in a process of identifying the core values of the public service The Codes of Conduct and Integrity Rules should emphasise managing conflict of interest and remain a living document to ensure relevance and ownership Ensuring that standards translate into practice and behavioural change Develop guidance material to help public employees identify and manage conflict of interests Support public employees in recognising and processing ethical dilemmas Optimise initiatives to communicate, raise awareness and train public employees on the Code of Ethics, the Codes of Conduct and the Integrity Rules Develop ethical leadership awareness and skills with public managers Laying the foundations for public integrity at municipal level Strengthening the framework to encourage reporting of acts of corruption and guarantee whistleblowers’ protection The majority of surveyed citizens perceive that reporting misconduct is useless and a waste of time The State of Mexico could strengthen whistleblower protection by establishing specific protections against reprisals after reporting misconduct Maximising the usefulness of tax, assets and interests declarations An effective verification of the information registered by public servants in their tax, assets and interests declarations could allow a better detection of potential conflict-of-interest situations and illicit enrichment The State of Mexico should consider following a risk-based approach in defining the scope of who needs to declare Towards evidence-informed integrity policies SECOGEM could consider expanding the surveys applied to its own officials to other ministries and auxiliary agencies of the State References 4 Strengthening the internal control model and the effective implementation of risk management in the State of Mexico Setting specific objectives for an effective control system The State of Mexico should improve the efforts to develop a regulatory framework that is the basis of everyday and real compliance with internal control Internal control is a process that connects all the personnel in institutions, not only a group of persons in charge. It is critical to achieve the appropriation of by public officials The visible commitment by managers should go beyond the minimum set in regulations The State of Mexico should strengthen training in internal control and public ethics, and take it to all the public officials SECOGEM could take more advantage of its information system to advise the government Adopting a strategic approach for risk management that comprises integrity risk assessment in the public sector Risk management should be an integral part of institutional management If officials do not take ownership of risk, the management will not be capable of addressing control deficiencies Incorporating personnel with managerial training in tasks related to direction and control contributes to better risk management and control activities Advancing information and communication about risks and control activities among the most interested institutional stakeholders Data and macro data analysis (Big Data) could be used by the State of Mexico to support a preemptive risk-based approach to fight fraud and corruption Further tapping into the information that the State of Mexico has to strategically safeguard integrity Fostering interinstitutional collaboration and the use of technologies by citizens strongly complements the internal control systems and provides more legitimacy to entities facing corruption risks Establishing coherent control mechanisms and an independent and effective internal audit function Information about control mechanisms can increase the strategic decision-making capacity of the government and the Anticorruption System of the State of Mexico, if adequately integrated The separation of roles and tasks in three lines of defense can help to clearly define functions and responsibilities The implementation of the Three Lines of Defense also requires to clarify that senior management and the governing board have important responsibilities in the application of the model The internal audit function should reach the highest possible independence from management, so that it can provide an objective opinion and greater reliability for decision making to senior management and interested third parties Internal audit can be an advisory function at the highest level OICs can help to prevent corruption through integrity audits The independence and role of internal auditing contributing to the internal control system is an objective that the State of Mexico should permanently pursue through measures aimed at improving the performance and integrity of internal auditors Strengthening internal control at the municipal level Internal control, risk management and internal audit at the municipal level need to be redesigned, developing human resources and having access to technical support References 5 Enhancing the implementation of the State of Mexico’s administrative liability system for public officials Ensuring fairness, objectivity and timeliness The implementation of the legal framework on administrative liability of public officials requires secondary regulations to fill procedural gaps and ensure its full application SECOGEM could scale up capacity-building efforts to address novelties of regulation and provide continuous guidance Promoting co-operation and exchange of information among institutions and entities The oversight role of SECOGEM over offices in charge of administrative liability could be leveraged to promote mutual learning and exchange of good practices An (electronic) case management tool could improve existing mechanisms for co-operation and exchange of information throughout administrative liability proceedings Establishing a mechanism to enhance enforcement collaboration, such as an ‘enforcement working group’ within the State of Mexico’s Anti-corruption System, would promote co-ordination between criminal and administrative liability authorities Dedicated co-operation efforts between SECOGEM, the State Administrative Tribunal and the Ministry of Finance are needed to identify and address challenges in the system for the recovery of economic sanctions Encouraging transparency about the effectiveness of the administrative liability system and the outcome of cases Selected data on administrative liability enforcement could be made available to the public in an interactive and user-friendly way and should be put at the disposal of the State Anti-corruption System The performance assessment mechanism of the administrative liability system could be complemented with additional indicators and its key results made publicly available References Notes