Annual Progress Report: Alliance for Integrity in Mexico (AIM)

The project is a collaborative effort between the Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad A.C. (IMCO) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project's main objective is to support the Government of Mexico (GOM) and civil society in implementing the National Anticorruption System (SNA). The project is divided into three components: Anticorruption and Integrity, Access to Justice and Rule of Law, and Strengthening Institutions to Fight Corruption and Impunity. The Anticorruption and Integrity component focuses on developing a Model Business Integrity Policy and analyzing legal reform options for the proper sanctioning of cross-border bribery. The Access to Justice and Rule of Law component aims to provide greater amounts of data to strengthen the base of evidence for developing public policy proposals that address challenges in human capital, legal reforms, institutional design, and materials. The Strengthening Institutions to Fight Corruption and Impunity component focuses on developing the institutional design for the Special Anticorruption Prosecutor's office. IMCO's proposal for this office is grounded in an in-depth analysis of internal, institutional, and procedural needs for a functional anti-corruption prosecutor office. The goal is that this recommendation becomes a tool for federal and state prosecutor offices, civil society groups, and others that seek to support the GOM's SNA implementation. The project has a national scope, with activities being conducted in various geographic areas, including Mexico City, Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas. The project's reporting period is from September 14, 2017, to September 30, 2018. During this period, the project team completed the first stage of each activity, including literature reviews, legislation and regulation reviews, review of study cases, and methodology design. The Mexican political landscape has undergone a profound transformation over the past few months, with the election of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his party MORENA securing a landslide victory. This has resulted in a complete transformation in terms of balance of power between political parties, with MORENA now having an unprecedented opportunity to accomplish reforms. The project team must consider MORENA's counterparts in any future collaborations and/or policy proposals regarding federal laws. The project's context analysis highlights the importance of fighting corruption, which was a main campaign promise of President-elect AMLO. The areas deemed urgent by the future administration include public procurement, technological solutions, and business integrity. The project team has a strong possibility of finding collaboration spaces between the future government and civil society organizations, given their shared priorities and overlap with the objectives set forth as part of the project.