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41 Crime L. & Soc. Change 1 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/crmlsc41 and id is 1 raw text is: #    Crime, Law & Social Change 41: 1-14, 2004.
© 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
Drilling down to the detail: A case study into anti-corruption
project records and record-keeping
HEATHER MARQUETTE' & ALAN DOIG2*
1 University of Birmingham and 2Teesside Business School, University of Teesside
Middlesbrough TS1 3BA, England; (*corresponding author; e-mail: r a.doig@tees.ac.uk)
Abstract. This article complements one written in 2001 for Crime, Law and Social Change
that underlined the importance of records and record-keeping in developing countries in com-
bating corruption and promoting participation. This article addresses the same theme as the
basis on which two developments intended to promote more efficient and effective anti-cor-
ruption funding could be assessed. These concern: the value of donors coordinating and co-
operating over donor funding (by institution and country) and the identification of particular
expertise of specific donors to diversify the range of complementary strengths (the compar-
ative advantage approach). To do that, effective evaluation of past projects is necessary -
and is in itself dependant on the quality, accessibility and usability of the records held. The
article uses the case-study of corruption prevention projects funded between 1995-1999 by
the European Unioni to consider the importance of records and record-keeping to the eval-
uation process and thus to any assessment and development of coordinated funding and the
comparative advantage approach.
Introduction: The context of records and record keeping
The role of donors in funding anti-corruption projects, and in considering the
relative or complementary expertise of donors in relation to specific areas or
activities, require an effective evaluation of the impact or effectiveness of the
projects on which to base any assessment of the two roles - and this in turn
is dependant in the first instance on the records and record keeping. In the
previous article it was noted that in many developing countries it was anticip-
ated that improved records and record keeping would occur as a by-product
of public service reform; consequently improved records management is
seldom treated as a priority among donors or recipient governments (Cain et
al., 2001: p. 410). It might be expected that donor countries would themselves
have developed and accessible record systems; most have comprehensive
and systematic audit and accountability frameworks with records and record
keeping as axiomatic:
The rationale for records management is relatively straightforward: there
needs to be a record of the decision-making process and the information

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