Forum on "Transparency and Good Governance in Public Office and in State-Owned Enterprises" in Argentina

In May, the Alliance for Integrity took another important step to strengthen its cooperation with the local public sector in Argentina. In cooperation with the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation and the government of the province of Buenos Aires, the Alliance for Integrity organised the forum about “Transparency and Good Governance in Public Office and in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)”.

The forum’s aim was to raise awareness about the vital importance of transparency and integrity in the public sector and in state-owned companies and to provide space for the exchange of best practices, opportunities, and challenges that SOEs and the public sector are facing. The acquired knowledge and the conclusions reached at the forum provide the participants with practical instruments and solutions to corruption-related problems. The participants can now act as multipliers spreading effective compliance and anti-corruption systems in the public sector throughout the Latin American country.

95 participants from a numerous variety of local, regional and national branches of government, public administration, state-owned companies, and private company’s representatives attended the forum
During the forum’s first panel high-level speakers such as Mora Kantor,Undersecretary for Integrity and Transparency, National Anti-Corruption Office Argentina, Luis Ferella,Executive Director, Office of Institutional Consolidation of the Province of Buenos Aires , and Jorge Bermúdez Soto, Comptroller General of the Republic of Chile discussed “Transparency and Good Governance in Public Office”. They allshared their first-hand experiences related to the topic.

The second debate centred on “Transparency and Good Governance in State-Owned Companies” in which experienced practitioners and professionals from publicly owned enterprises shared their expertise with the audience. The panel’s participants included representatives from SOEs owned by the government of the province of Buenos Aires and by the central government. The speakers shared the challenges and best practices of implementing a compliance programme in SOEs.

After a joint lunch, the attendees were able to listen to a panel on public procurement and to look into the opportunities and challenges of public-private partnerships. The discussion was moderated by Maria Regueira from AHK Argentina and was initiated by Trinidad Inostroza Castro,Director, Chile Compra who shared the experience made in Chile with public e-procurement platform “Chile Compra” that is regareded a best practice example for digitalisation and efficiency in the region.

The Alliance for Integrity has been active in Argentina since 2015 by offering its “De Empresas Para Empresas” corruption prevention training programme to all relevant and interested stakeholders, from multinational companies to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Since 2017 it has been offering training session to the public sector at all levels of government and SOEs at a pilot level as well in cooperation with the National Anti-Corruption Office Argentina, and the Office of Institutional Consolidation of the Ministry of Justice of the province of Buenos Aires.

The participants considered the Forum a success and agreed that the relationship between the co-organisers should further be extended..