The Implementation Plan for the ADB-OECD Action Plan foresees the establishment of a Regional Steering Group to review progress achieved by participating countries in implementing the Action Plan. It is composed of government representatives and national experts on the technical issues discussed during the respective meeting as well as representatives of the Anti-Corruption Initiative’s Secretariat and Advisory Group. The review process is a fairly soft one, reflecting a more cautious attitude with regard to regional approaches to the corruption problem.

As one part of its work, the Regional Steering Group has reviewed country implementation of government-selected projects. It has also reviewed country legal and institutional frameworks and policies to fight corruption.
Development and review of country projects

The follow-up process for the Action plan has involved two implementation cycles, in line with the Action Plan’s Implementation Plan. In the 1st Implementation Cycle (2002-2003) and the 2nd implementation cycle (2004-2005) there have been the following steps:

• identification by government, with the Secretariat of the Initiative, of up to three priority reform areas which would fall under any of the three pillars and development of concrete implementation projects
• implementation of the projects in a workable timeframe.
• review of the implementing projects during a Steering Group meeting.

Review of legal and institutional frameworks and policies

In the framework of the Action Plan's implementation mechanism, endorsing countries have agreed to periodically report on progress made to respond to the Action Plan's goals and objectives. Against this background, the Steering Group, at its third meeting of March 2003, agreed to take stock of its member countries' legal and institutional anti-corruption frameworks.

The Steering Group’s review of the participating countries' legal and institutional frameworks and policies to fight corruption aims to assist participating governments to better understand the main challenges which their countries face, assess problems encountered in implementing anti-corruption policies, learn from their neighbouring countries’ experience, and identify measures to further enhance anti-corruption efforts.

The process thus far consists of the following steps:

• an overall self-assessment report by governments on their legal and institutional frameworks to implement the Action Plan. These are published and also serve as benchmarks to assess achievements under the Action Plan and to identify priorities for reform. The initial self-assessment was on their overall framework.
• self assessment reports in specific areas, based on a questionnaire. self-assessment is on provisions and practices to curb corruption in public procurement.
• plenary review by the Steering Group to measure progress.
• stocktaking or overview report by the Secretariat based on all the self-assessments. The initial one on the overall frameworks was adopted by the Steering Group in July 2004. The on-line version of the report will be regularly updated to take account of recent reforms undertaken by endorsing countries as reported at the Steering Group meetings, and to include information on countries that have joined the Initiative since the adoption of the first report in July 2004.
• series of in-depth thematic studies, the first of which will cover the countries' systems to curb corruption in public procurement.

The country self-assessments and the stocktaking report, visit the Action Plan website

At the 6th Steering Group Meeting of the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia-Pacific, in April 2005, there were three main objectives:

• To report on and discuss recent and planned anti-corruption reforms in endorsing countries, including progress made in the implementation of the countries' priority areas for reform under the Action Plan;
• To present and discuss the existing legal and institutional frameworks for curbing corruption in public procurement in endorsing countries; and
• To discuss the past, on-going and future program of work of the ADB/OECD Initiative in support of national anti-corruption efforts.

For more information visit the website for the ADB-OECD Initiative.