According to the OECD, Latvia's highest performance in the anti-corruption strategy is based on strategic planning and the policy planning document developed by the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) as the lead anti-corruption institution – the Corruption Prevention and Combating Action Plan 2023-2025. It includes 49 various measures to with relevant work tasks to fight corruption, and several public sector institutions are responsible for their implementation.
In addition, Latvia is one of the eight OECD countries with a successful public officials' declaration system, which scrupulously checks the income, assets and transactions of both highest and other officials. This system, which is managed by the State Revenue Service, has an indirect link to the conflict of interest prevention framework, which is monitored by the KNAB. When detecting any violation of this framework, the State Revenue Service or public may inform KNAB which will assess the relevant information. Among other things, the declaration verification mechanisms introduced in Latvia allow to identify opportunities for unjustified or unlawful enrichment by tracking the financial flows of public officials, including whether the official had sufficient income and/or savings to carry out a transaction, such as the purchase of real estate.
Latvia is also one of the few OECD countries that has introduced a so-called cooling-off period, whereby a public official is prohibited for two years after the termination of a legal relationship from holding positions in organisations where decisions were taken or other actions were taken during his or her tenure. This restriction also applies to actions against the spouse or partner of a public official. The purpose of such restrictions is to prevent risks of conflict of interest and to mitigate the risks that a former public official, motivated by self-interest, might use information that was at his or her disposal during the performance of his or her duties.
In addition, the international organisation has included Latvia in its publication among the OECD member countries where it is mandatory for public institutions to have an internal anti-corruption control system, i.e. an anti-corruption mechanism that can, inter alia, protect organisations from being caught up in corruption scandals and conflict of interest violations.
The full OECD summary and conclusions is available on the website of the OECD. The publication assesses the performance of OECD countries in six categories – anti-corruption strategy, corruption risk management, lobbying, prevention of conflicts of interest, financing of political parties, and access to public information. The OECD has based its analysis on data provided by countries for the period 2020-2024, updated periodically. The OECD last updated the data only in visualisations, including charts, so the textual information in the report may differ from the charts.