MOBILIZING SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR FIGHTING CORRUPTION:
THE CASES OF RUSSIA AND HUNGARY

February 2003 - January 2004.

Collaborative project with the Foundation for Market Economy (FME, Budapest) and the Transitional Crime and Corruption Center in the American University (TraCCC, Washington) within the frame of Think Tank Partnership Program.

Project coordinator: Irina Olimpieva.

One of the main ideas of the project was to bridge the results of the studies undertaken by the Think Tanks in the previous research with on-going activities of civil society organisations. In this light, the St. Petersburg team was interested in looking at the role of NGOs in fighting corruption in state-business relations (small and medium-sized business). FME focused on the role of NGOs in fighting corruption in public procurement in Hungary.

The purposes of the follow-up study were the following:

• to contribute to the picture of anti-corruption activism by revealing civil society players of anti-corruption field;
• to analyse the activities of acting NGOs and business associations through the lenses of acquired material. The main task was to see to what extent the activities of NGOs correspond with problems which have been revealed in the courses of previous studies;
• (for St. Petersburg team) to pay special attention to local business associations, including associations established in some districts of the city by representatives of small and medium-sized business, to study their experience in anti-corruption field;
• (for Hungarian team) to discover the activities and effect of some relevant NGOs and business associations in fighting corruption relating to the public procurement process.

Participants: Irina Olimpieva, Oleg Pachenkov, Lubov Ejova, Elena Nikiforova.

Supported by USAID, IRIS Й KPMG Consulting Barents Group.

The project included also a dissemination part - the workshop in Irkutsk "The role of analytical centres and NGOs in the development of anti-corruption policy". The purpose of the workshop was to spread the outcomes of the Think Tank Partnership project to the areas of Russia where the corruption is an extreme problem (Siberia), to discuss with the scholars and NGOs' representatives relevant problems encountered by researchers and NGOs in their studies on corruption and anti-corruption activities, and to organise the exchange of information regarding situation with corruption in different regions of Siberia.

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