About Knowledge Management System

Introduction

During its 4th Annual Conference and General Meeting at Macau in Nov., 2010, IAACA had formulated a work plan to guide its activities towards achieving its stated goals. The work plan lists five activities which are to be implemented through Task Forces constituted for each of these activities. Members were required to volunteer to lead these Task Forces. India had offered to lead a Task Force on the activity of Knowledge Management and to provide the necessary facilities and resources for setting up of a Knowledge Management system. This proposal was approved by the IAACA Secretariat in Sept., 2012, and a ten-member Task Force was constituted, consisting of representatives from various regions across the world. Meeting of the task Force was held on 4th oct 2012 at Kualalumpur and 8th April 2013 at New Delhi.

Objectives of Knowledge Management

Anti-corruption authorities (ACAs) across the globe, represent diverse, social, economic, legal, political and governmental systems. Information about their mandate, organisation, functions and practices is necessary to promote international cooperation in anti corruption. Availability of practical information on the anticorruption authorities has been a real problem. The aim of the Knowledge Management System is to collect and make available all such information in one place. It would also enable sharing of information and experience among members through a user-friendly and dynamic web portal wherein users can search and extract the required information. The Knowledge Management System would thus enable :

1. International cooperation in enforcement and prevention
2. definition of best practices and benchmarks
3. development of new approaches to tackle the problem of corruption
4. capacity building of anti corruption authorities

The activity of Knowledge Management also fulfils three broad objectives of the IAACA.

1. Promoting knowledge sharing and providing knowledge services by:
   • Encouraging continuous cooperation and collaboration between ACAs on issues of mutual interest
   • Promoting best practice studies, research and data analysis consistence with diversity and sovereignty considerations
   • Facilitating sharing of key practices and lessons learnt from individual members or regions.
   • Facilitating timely communication among IAACA members.
2. Promoting the institutional capacity building of the ACAs by:
   • Collecting and disseminating information to enrich the training process.
3. Demonstrating the value and benefits of the Association and to promote public trust in IAACA.

Components of the Knowledge Management system

The four components of the Knowledge Management activity as listed in the Work Plan are:

1. Collection of the terms of reference and procedures of anti-corruption authorities across the globe.
2. A searchable digest of prominent and concluded anti-corruption cases to serve as case studies.
3. A directory of anti-corruption agencies across the world along with details of contact and nodal officers. This would facilitate establishing contact and exchange of information.
4. A digest of good enforcement and preventive anti-corruption practices in various areas or sectors.