A key element relating politics to corruption is the money that pours into electoral processes and campaigns. In many cases, individuals, organisations and businesses contribute money to political candidates, expecting to win contracts, political positions or policy favours in return for their financial backing. In others, governments often unlawfully use public resources to influence election results in favour of their party’s candidates.

As some politicians have already experienced, confronting the corruption problem and its inherited bad practices goes beyond political speeches and expressing good intentions. For example, Brazil’s government under Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won election over the incumbent by promising ethical politics, but has since been tarnished by successive Brazilian Labour Party (PTB) scandals. Many similar cases can be found throughout the region.

Some countries in the region have reformed their electoral financing laws and introduced norms to make campaign finance information public. A report on party and election accounts has been required in Paraguay since 1990. Since 1994, Colombian political parties must submit accounts annually, and report separately on elections.

Poder Ciudadano, TI’s National Chapter in Argentina, has a long record of devising projects on political finance issues. An outstanding example is agreements between electoral candidates and civil society organisations to voluntarily render accounts on campaign finance. These ‘transparency pacts’ are monitored through independent estimates of campaign expenditures on media advertising.

This process does not depend on a legal framework with advanced transparency requirements. Critical to its success is convincing politicians to undertake the challenge and render accounts voluntarily. Another core issue is the feasibility of independently assessing campaign expenditures.

Transparency pacts, in combination with estimates of media expenditure, have been successfully replicated in Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Other national chapters have also taken measures to keep an eye on election campaigns. TI Costa Rica launched a programme to monitor electoral propaganda and financial information during this year’s elections. Transparencia por Colombia is promoting transparency in the parliamentary and presidential elections this year. They have developed the website votebien.com which contains the most recent information on curricula vitae, proposals made by candidates and campaign finances. They have also developed a tool that facilitates the monitoring of campaign income and expenses.

The TI Latin America and the Caribbean network (TILAC) launched the Disclosure of Political Finance in Latin America (DPFLA) regional project in October 2005. Designed in partnership with the Carter Center, it is a way to assess the degree of transparency in political financing. In its first phase, which runs until January 2007, eight Latin American countries will be participating: Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. The project’s findings will be used to advise key players (such as governments, political parties, and watchdog groups) on how to foster transparency in their electoral and party financing systems.

Nevertheless, there is still work to be done in the area of transparency in campaign finance. Half of the Latin American countries have not yet set a limit on private financing for electoral campaigns. Some countries still face tasks such as balancing equity and integrity with the demand for resources to finance political competition.