TEPAV organizes Anti Corruption Conferences on a yearly basis, each focusing on a specific topic. The aim is to follow-up anti corruption efforts in Turkey, to provide knowledge and platform for the policy debates and to create awareness in the public opinion. 3rd Anti Corruption Conference was organized on December 5-6 with the topic "Decentralization and Corruption"
Turkey is still in very early stages of decentralization. Local government laws that passed back in 2005 have introduced several measures to enhance the autonomy and authority of the local administrations vis a-vis the central government. But apart from political/ideological opposition against transferring more authority (and resources) to lower levels of government the main argument against decentralization relates to the nascent administrative capacity of municipalities (and provincial administrations) and popular perception of them being one of the most corrupt institutions in Turkey. Therefore the argument is that decentralization most probably would increase corruption and lead to deterioration in the quality of public services.
This is actually a serious risk that needs to be tackled at the outset. On the other hand local administrations frequently complain about the heavy bureaucratic burden brought about by abundance of inspections, audits, controls that have been imposed on them by the central institutions. Therefore it seems that it is not the quantity but the quality i.e. effectiveness of vertical controls (or tutelage) on local administrations that is problematic.
Furthermore the main mechanism that keeps local administrations on check and maintains the quality of public services is believed to be the democratic control of citizens. To this end the new laws on local administrations envisage the establishment of Citizen Assemblies with the participation of CBO's, NGO's and other civil society organizations. However these are newly established organizations yet to be mainstreamed into the traditional governance structure of public administrative system. Additionally they need to accumulate capacity to monitor and influence local decision making processes and thus to act as a horizontal control mechanism on local governments.
The conference on Decentralization and Corruption discussed the impact of decentralization on corruption whether corruption is decreased or simply decentralized. Bearing into mind that corruption cannot be eradicated totally working group sessions focused on the control of corruption through vertical and horizontal accountability mechanisms regarding local administrations.