Likewise, on May 20, 2020, Transparency International, in an equipment being awarded to companies of doubtful origin had open letter to the OAS Secretary General,9 called for “urgent already been recorded, as well as rising prices of medicines and action from the OAS in order to make sure that, in the Americas, basic health equipment, physicians stocking treatments for friends corruption risks are minimized, transparency is strengthened, and family, and various types of online fraud, among others. and emergency powers are reasonably exercised” during the COVID-19 crisis and recommended five anti-corruption measures Along with this, the OECD called upon governments to focus in response to COVID-19. special attention on three aspects: • Articulate and demonstrate OAS and JSWG commitment • Challenges to integrity in government procurement, to anti-corruption during the COVID-19 crisis. because experiences from other humanitarian and health crises have shown that emergencies are • Reasonable exercise of emergency powers and state vulnerable to abuse. of emergency. • Accountability, monitoring, and oversight of economic • Transparency and accountability in public procurement. stimulus packages. • Audits by internal audit bodies and third parties. • Rise in the risk of breaching the principle of integrity in government organizations. • Implementation of existing anti-corruption and anti-money laundering frameworks. In April 2020, the World Bank also identified10 areas of government International and regional organizations members of the Joint response to COVID-19 where there were risks of corruption and Summit Working Group (JSWG), chaired by the OAS, also how they could escalate: (1) response to the health emergency; drew attention to the risks of corruption and how the pandemic (2) response to food insecurity and livelihood precariousness, entrenches these risks. At its fourth special meeting on the impact and (3) the adoption of emergency powers to address economic of COVID-19 in the Americas, the senior authorities of the JSWG, and health crises and to uphold public law and order. The World in their Joint Declaration “Addressing Corruption, Integrity, and Bank drew attention to the risks of corruption in various areas and Democratic Governance associated with COVID-19,” reiterated proposed that governments should adopt a series of measures their concern that progress made in tackling corruption would to prevent, reduce, or mitigate risks of corruption and implement run the risk of being undermined “as national and subnational those that ensure that government agencies have the capacity authorities in the region rush to implement new policy responses to act correctly in the case of a health emergency. Many of the and emergency measures, including the rapid disbursement measures proposed by the World Bank and the OECD coincide, of large amounts of public resources and new lines of and both institutions issued early warnings about the threat of credit, sometimes without the necessary anti-corruption and corruption. accountability safeguards.” In this Joint Declaration they also Among the measures to ensure the integrity of procurement warned that “the arbitrary elimination of adequate oversight that processes, the OECD first advised ensuring that there would is evident in many jurisdictions, whether as a result of restricted be a team of trained civil servants with the skills to implement access to public data and the limitations of accountability emergency procurement procedures. Along with this, it also measures or the diminishing opportunities available to civil recommended the following measures, among others: society to guarantee transparency, runs the risk of undermining democratic norms and the effectiveness of regional governance.” In April 2020, the OECD drew timely attention to preliminary • Documenting procurement processes and ensuring evidence suggesting that corruption and fraud were occurring the greatest openness in terms of information, during the health crisis, and previous experience indicated that its including open data. impact would probably escalate in the near future. Regarding this, the OECD noted that cases of contracts for personal protection Cultivating a culture of integrity in the civil service in times of crisis 33