Fighting Corruption on the Transdnistrian Border: Lessons from Successful and Failed Anti-Corruption Programmes

Bryane Michael, U. of Oxford

Abstract

In 2007, both Moldovan and Ukrainian authorities took firm steps to reduce corruption along the Transdnistrian border. This paper – aimed mainly at anticorruption practitioners and scholars in public administration – discusses the background and underlying principles guiding the anti-corruption work being adopted by both governments in order to facilitate discussion about optimal anticorruption programme design. This paper presents a set of tools used during the planning phase of the anti-corruption programme — outlining the methodology used to assess the extent of corruption on the Transdnistrian border, the problems of legislative transplants, a “contract test” for defining corruption offenses, a method of risk analysis, and a model of optimal anti-corruption programme organizational design.