Integrity in Political Finance in Greece

Annex A. Framework on financing democracy: Supporting better public policies and averting policy capture

 

Overall objective	Policy options and specific risks to mitigate
Promoting a level playing field	Balancing funding through direct and indirect public contributions	Direct funding that entails a monetary transfer to parties, candidates: • clear and equitable criteria, such as equal access and proportionality • provision to promote gender equality. Indirect funding, including tax exemptions, subsidised access to media, meeting rooms, etc. Unintended consequences may include: Risk of an unbalanced playing field for the challengers and smaller parties if, for example, the criteria of allocation is based on past electoral performance.
	Framing private funding	Banning certain types of private contributions, in particular: • foreign interest • corporations with government contracts or partial government ownership • corporate donations, trade unions, etc. Limiting anonymous donations. Unintended consequences may include: Risks of avoidance through third-party funding and other legislative loopholes.
	Applying spending limits	Clear limits based on absolute amount, percentage of total public funding, certain amount per citizen in the electoral district, etc. Unintended consequences may include: Risk of avoidance through third-party funding Risk of an uneven playing field for the challengers if there is an abuse of state resources by the incumbent.
	Limiting privileged access to state resources	Controlling abuse of state resources: • ban the use of state resources for political purposes • ban state resources being given to, or received by, political parties or candidates (except regulated public funding) • ban disproportionate government spending on advertising before or during campaigns, hiring new public servants and signing large public contracts. Unintended consequences may include; Risk of avoidance if the incumbents use the public resources to campaign for their votes in the name of “carrying out their legislative duties”.
Ensuring transparency and accountability	Requiring disclosures	Requiring comprehensive reporting, including: • timely provision of information. Not limiting reporting to only how public funds have been spent, but also include private donations.
	Enabling scrutiny	Timely, reliable, accessible and intelligible public disclosure of reports. Promote media and civil society scrutiny.
Fostering a culture of integrity	Applying the integrity framework in the public sector	Code of conduct. Conflict of interest and asset disclosure provisions. Disclosure on lobbying. Risk mapping. Whistleblower protection.
	Promoting standards of professionalism, integrity and transparency in private donors	Self-regulation of financing of political parties and electoral campaigns: • appropriate accounting practices • private sector codes of conduct • responsible lobbying.
Ensuring compliance and review	Assuring independent and efficient oversight	Strengthen independence of monitoring body and process: • independent appointment of members • ensure the security of tenure to members • independent budget for the body to conduct monitoring. Provide capacity: • sufficient resources • specialised auditing capacities and methodologies. Unintended consequences may include: Risk of over-complication of procedures among many different institutions.
	Applying dissuasive and enforceable sanctions	Proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, for example: • lose public subsidies • confiscation of illegal donations or funds • fines • criminal charges such as imprisonment • ineligibility: loss of elected office, forfeiting right to run for elections • deregistration or suspension of a political party. Enforcement of sanctions in a timely manner.
	Appraising the system	Reviewing periodically - with the involvement of stakeholders - the functioning of the system and making necessary adjustments: • identify new risks to the policy objectives of the system • identify mitigation strategies.
	Support to political parties	Providing support to political parties to help them comply with regulations: • setting up a support unit within the monitoring agency focused on supporting compliance • dialogue between parties and monitoring agencies in order to facilitate adherence to the rules and allow for better understanding of political finance.