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Crafting anti-corruption agencies’ bureaucratic reputation: an uphill battle

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 March 2021

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Abstract

The widespread implementation of anti-corruption agencies (ACAs) has been an important public administration trend of the past decades. Considering the multifaceted challenges they face, much attention has been afforded to the legal structures which condition their bureaucratic autonomy. Little is known, however, about the reputational dimension of the autonomy of ACAs. This paper contributes a theoretical bridge between bureaucratic reputation theory and the anti-corruption literature, by studying how these agencies construct and manage their reputations over time. Using a mixed-methods research design, this paper employs a narrative analysis of commission hearings and semi-structured interviews, paired with quantitative content analysis of media articles and agency web-communications. The case of Quebec’s (Canada) ACA shows the inherent challenges, strategies and non-linearity of reputation building, which enriches our understanding of the difficulty of crafting an agency’s de facto bureaucratic autonomy.

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Notes

  1. Translates to ‘Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit’

  2. Translates to ‘Anti-Corruption Commissioner’

  3. Later, the ruling party lost the elections, and the newly formed government modified the nomination process of the Commissioner to be nominated by a 2/3rd majority of parliament.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. César Garzon and Dr. Étienne Charbonneau for their helpful comments on the paper, as well as the Fonds de Recherche du Québec sur la Société et la Culture (FRQSC) for financial support. All shortcomings belong to the author.

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Correspondence to Nicholas Bautista-Beauchesne.

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The original online version of this article was revised: Full information regarding the corrections made can be found in the correction for this article.

Annex

Annex

(source: UPAC reports 2012 to 2018)

Qualitative coding scheme

Several coding schemes were developed to engage the different types of data that were used in this article. For the qualitative data, a mainly inductive coding approach was used to generate narrative stories and analyse the qualitative interviews. This process enabled to generate themes, categories and labels centered around the agency’s bureaucratic reputation and autonomy. A line-by-line coding strategy was employed using the software Nvivo ®. The coding excerpts and exemplars formed the basis of the narrative analysis. A shortened sample of the codebook which shows several examples of coding nodes with their description.

Name of node

Description

Bureaucratic Autonomy

General statements which refer to the ability of the ACA to pursue its mandates without exogenous interference

(A) Capacities-unique-niche

Specific statements which pertain to the powers, capacities, programs which define the autonomy of the agency

(A) Legitimacy-Network

Specific statements which pertain to the building of institutional inter-agency networks and legitimacy that define the ACA’s autonomy

(A) Preferences-independence

Specific statements which pertain to the political independence and organisational preferences of the agency.

Bureaucratic Reputation

General statements which refer to the organisational reputation and credibility of the agency.

(R) Moral

Specific statements which pertain to the values and normative dimension of the ACA’s reputation

(R) Performance

Specific statements which pertain to performance indicators, outputs, and goals of the ACA.

(R) Procedural

Specific statements which pertain to the following of protocol, appropriate procedures, legal and judicial guidelines, and jurisdictions.

(R) Technical and Professional

Specific statements pertaining to the competence of the ACA’s staff, their professionalism, the development of a unique technical expertise in fighting corruption.

Change and evolution of policies

General statements pertaining to the modifying of the policy environment surrounding the ACA, changes in anticorruption laws, or the addition of new institutions over time.

Citizens

General statements pertaining to the relationship with citizens as an accountability forum, fostering trust, and cooperation (i.e. witness testimonies).

Coordination and Cooperation

General statements pertaining to inter-agency relations with other bureaucratic agencies, coordination with other public agencies

Prevention

General statements pertaining to the different mandates of corruption prevention such as education, training, raising awareness, risk-management etc.

To give an example of the qualitative coding process, a coded excerpt for each bureaucratic reputation dimension has been sampled and translated from the Commissioner’s parliamentary hearings:

Performative: “I think the UPAC has proved itself. We have, statistically speaking, 155 completed arrests, as you said, 86 cases committed for trial, 18 or 20 convictions solely at the criminal level, excluding the penal, 18 million recovered. I think that we’re doing the work, no one is questioning that.” [39].

Procedural: “People familiar with this area know this: every economic crime, is extremely long, extremely complicated. It’s, oftentimes, without witnesses, it’s testimonial proof and we need to take the time to do it; and myself, I won’t accept the submission of a half-baked casefile, because at that point, we would be blamed for cutting corners, intentionally or not, and that won’t be the case. Each casefile that will be submitted to the DPCP, you can rest assured that it’s going to be complete, and that it’s going to be to their satisfaction”. [41].

Moral: “Our joint actions are founded on the values of integrity, of loyalty, of respect and of competence” [39].

Technical and Professional: “I am truly proud to be able to count on a permanent and competent staff, which is currently developing a unique expertise. They are the grand artisans of the UPAC’s success”. [39].

Quantitative coding schemes

For the quantitative data, two different datasets with similar coding schemes were developed for the press articles and the web communications. This was necessary because the inductive thematic analysis was susceptible of varying between the media and the web communications; and because the coding dealt with different types of perceptions of the ACA’s reputation. Indeed, the web communications dealt with an internal perspective of reputation management, while the press articles reflected a broader external perspective of the ACA’s bureaucratic reputation. For both datasets, a single coding procedure was used for the bureaucratic reputation dimension, and an inductive thematic analysis progressively generated categories to filter the articles. Two samples are provided, to exemplify the coding process, one web article and one press article.

Web article excerpt (translated)

“The Commissioner (…) has disclosed this morning in a press briefing the details of an important operation that was carried out on the South-Bank of Montreal. Once the operation was completed, 14 individuals were arrested and 47 charges were submitted concerning cases of fraud, fraud on the government, breach of trust by a public servant, acts of municipal corruption, influencing a municipal public servant, conspiracy and use of counterfeit documents.” (C8, 2012, p.1).

ID

Date

Theme

Prevention

Repression

Performance

Moral

Technical – Professional

Procedural

C8

17/04/2012

Investigation update or progression

0

1

1

0

0

0

Press article excerpt (translated)

EPIM officers join the UPAC.

Sarah Bélisle, Journal de Montréal (11/12/2013, p.9).

ID

Date

Media

Theme

Prevention

Repression

Performance

Moral

Technical – Professional

Procedural

P12–462

11/12/2013

Journal de Montréal

Evolution of the institutional, legal and organisational structure

0

1

0

0

1

0

“The police officers of the Escouade de Protection de l’Intégrité Municipale de la Ville de Montréal (EPIM) have passed under the purview of the Unité Permanente Anticorruption (UPAC). The city’s Mayor, Denis Coderre announced yesterday. M. Coderre considers the decision as a first step towards the creation of an Inspector General’s office, a cornerstone of his campaign. He has declined to address the question. “Today, we regroup the expertise and the Montreal perspective of the EPIM with the information and multi-disciplinary approach of the UPAC, and bingo”, exclaimed the mayor. The two entities will work closely together.”

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Bautista-Beauchesne, N. Crafting anti-corruption agencies’ bureaucratic reputation: an uphill battle. Crime Law Soc Change 75, 297–326 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-020-09928-9

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