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That was the message from a panel looking at where culture, sustainability and corruption meet. Liljana Cvetanoska, Head of Research at the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy, pointed out that public procurement offers fertile ground
“Corruption goes beyond simple bribery,” she explained. “It covers nepotism, cronyism, lack of public trust, undue influence on decision making processes. Systemic corruption – to the point of state capture – is important in the sustainability arena.
“We need to look at direct and indirect corruption – from misallocation of resources for environmental projects to social injustice to indirect forms, where there is a big drop in public trust in government.”
And Cvetanoska reminded the audience that a great deal of corruption in this area goes on after contracts are awarded, making continuing oversight vital.
“A lot of annexes of contracts open the door to corruption, so keep in mind the need to stay on top of delivery in order to reduce risk,” she said.
That theme – remaining vigilant in the face of sustainability-linked corruption, which can sometimes be invisible – has informed much of Einar Fogh’s work in Uganda, where he serves as head of component under the Governance and Civil Society Programme for the German development organisation GIZ.
“It’s important to remember that although when we talk about corruption we think it just affects the country in which it takes place, with sustainability-linked corruption, the impact is much broader,” he said.
“So we need to work better together to address this issue. Because if trust is lost in how we’re spending this money, then the funds will dry up.’
Peter Welch’s work with the OECD has taken him across the world, and he agreed that maintaining public support for investment into sustainable projects was vital – and doing so will require some painful decisions.
“The conceptually correct decision is to raise the price of fossil fuels to drive behaviour change, but it’s not very electorally popular; so governments are thinking about themselves. And the cost of the transition will be huge – and we risk running out of funds and also creating green fatigue. So it’s important for all of us to make sure that when we’re implementing decisions we’re doing it for the right reasons because we can’t afford to test people’s patience by misusing funds.”
And of course that requires good oversight from public servants to ensure funds are directed to the right projects and deliver the planned impact, which is where CIPFA comes in.
“We have to take this seriously,” said Diana Melville, who acts as a governance advisor to CIPFA, and says public services are on the front line of delivering on the sustainable agenda. “It’s crucial we get this right to keep people’s trust, so doing everyday things well is a good starting point.
“And then we need to be aware of the behaviour that erodes public trust – poor behaviour at the top, perception of unfairness and access to funds – it all matters. Demonstrating that you’re planning for the longer term around climate change is a massive job for those in public finance.”
