An online kit of tools to help small and medium-sized enterprises prevent and combat corruption phenomena which they may incur in relations with public administrations. This is the fulcrum of the ACTS Anti-Corruption Toolkit for SMEs project), proposed by Unioncamere and co-financed by the Internal Security Fund of the European Union. The toolkit, which will be available at the beginning of February on the website http://www.acts-project.eu/, was presented in Brussels as part of the International Anti-Corruption Day, during a workshop expressly addressed to SMEs and in which the also the Ambassador of Italy in Belgium, Elena Basile, and the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister of Labour, Economy and Consumers, Kris Peeters.
All the project partners, launched in January 4, contributed to the preparation of the toolkit in 2016 languages (Italian, English, Serbian and Romanian): Unioncamere, which also made use of its homonymous structure present in Brussels, the Chambers of Bari and Latina for Italy, the Chamber of Commerce of Costanza for Romania, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia and Eurochambres (the association of European chamber systems).
The absolute novelty of the toolkit is that it is an online tool that allows small and medium-sized enterprises to self-assess the degree of risk of incurring corruption dynamics. Together with the self-assessment, the kit also provides indications on "self-defense" or prevention measures and concrete responses to activate contrast tools. Thus, they range from very simple but effective suggestions (such as the fact that an entrepreneur can discourage potential corrupt behavior by never receiving a public official on his own), to much more articulated and complex measures (such as the implementation of a code of ethics corporate).
The toolkit was created at the end of a process of analysis and study of the phenomenon of corruption against SMEs, which made it possible to identify the social, economic or cultural mechanisms that can facilitate the emergence of distortive dynamics to their detriment. There are many examples: from the lack of confidence in the ability of institutions to intervene effectively, to the fear of retaliation by local organized crime; from the need to identify ways to circumvent excessive bureaucracy, to the position of the company in a particular complex reality, such as that of a large city.
The identified and classified corruption models were subjected to a comparative analysis in Italy, Serbia and Romania aimed at determining whether there are common transversal factors or dynamics or whether there are factors linked to territorial specificities. In this way, it was possible to guarantee the transferability and replicability of the results at a national level.
