Assessing the Impact of Asset and Interest Declaration Systems

• In Event: Corruption, values and contagion

Abstract

The qAID initiative will deliver a groundbreaking toolkit designed to rigorously assess and enhance the effectiveness of Asset and Interest Disclosure (AID) systems across EU Member and Candidate States. This comprehensive toolkit, vital for academic and policy discourse, will feature two key chapters: firstly, five detailed country briefings, synthesizing key performance indicators and interview data to provide a nuanced understanding of national AID system impacts, with a focus on measurable outcomes like filing compliance, sanctions, and public engagement; and secondly, step-by-step guidelines tailored for anti-corruption bodies, law enforcement, civil society, and investigative media, enabling them to effectively evaluate, improve and utilize AID data for risk analysis, illicit wealth detection, and conflict of interest identification. By incorporating data from desk research, surveys, and in-depth interviews, this toolkit will offer a user-friendly methodology to measure the impact of AID systems on public officials' behavior, civil society transparency efforts, and law enforcement efficiency, ultimately fostering a more robust anti-corruption framework. Specifically, the toolkit will address critical issues such as the adequacy of disclosure requirements (e.g., "Are there any loopholes for offenders to evade disclosure?"), the efficiency of verification processes (e.g., "Is the number of employees directly checking declarations sufficient?"). The methodology will be pilot tested in Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Croatia, and published as a comprehensive report in English.

Authors

• Alexander Gerganov, Center for the Study of Democracy

• Daniela Mineva, Center for the Study of Democracy

• Atanas Rusev, Center for the Study of Democracy

• Tsvetomir Nikolov, Center for the Study of Democracy

• Andrea Di Nicola, ​Associate professor of criminology, Faculty of Law​, University of Trento​, and director of the​ ​Centre of Security and Crime Sciences​ (University of Trento and University of Verona​)​

• Gabriele Baratto, Faculty of Law, University of Trento | Centre of Security and Crime Sciences, University of Trento and University of Verona