The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau of the Republic of Latvia (CPCB) was founded on 10th October 2002 with the primary goal of ensuring an efficient, centralized and united fight against corruption within the public service of Latvia. Before the CPCB's establishment, anti-corruption functions were performed by state institutions, causing overlap and inefficient use of resources. Today's single independent institution upholds the integrity of the public service by eradicating and preventing corruption, and by bringing the corrupt to justice.

CPCB's threefold anti-corruption strategy of prevention, education and enforcement is pursued through the following tasks:

1. Monitoring compliance of the actions of public officials to the law "On Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Actions of State Officials''. The CPCB is competent to charge public officials with liability and impose punishment in cases of violations in the area of corruption.
2. Monitoring political parties' compliance with party financing regulations and in cases provided by law, CPCB is authorized to charge with liability and impose appropriate punishment. Through the creation of a database on political parties' finances, CPCB monitors political parties' donations received and annual financial declarations. This database is also available to the public via the Bureau's official homepage (http://www.knab.gov.lv).
3. Conducting investigations and collating criminal intelligence to discover criminal offences in the area of corruption.
4. Educating the public in areas of law, ethics and corruption prevention.

Operational only since 1st February 2003 CPCB's efforts have so far achieved fairly good results in the fight against corruption.

In close co-operation with other institutions CPCB has formulated the National Strategy and the National Programme for Corruption Prevention and Combating for 2004-2008. These two documents are fundamental and are at the root of the national anti-corruption policy. The first identifies the basic principles, objectives and main priorities and the second comprehensibly defines precise tasks, responsible institutions and timeframes for implementation of the strategy.

Considerable efforts have been made to improve efficiency of control systems to monitor income and to detecting the origin of illicit wealth by elaborating the Concept on Improvement of Income Control of Individuals.

CPCB's Report Center also facilitates the procedures for lodging complaints by the public.

In particular, the establishment of CPCB's control of political parties' finances has been reinforced and has become more transparent, ensuring the legitimacy of political parties' finances.

Finally, to promote more active public participation in the anti-corruption policy, the Public Consultative Council of the CPCB has been set up. As an advisory body, the Council guarantees public access and public consultations and members include NGO, mass media and private sector representatives.

Mr. Aleksejs Loskutors
Director
Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau of the Republic of Latvia