IACA Presents the Results of Its Corruption Measurement Project

In particular, within the Programme, IACA published:

1) the report “Architecture of Corruption Measurement,” which provides an analysis of existing measurement practices, identifies challenges, gaps, and potential areas for further development;

2) the methodology “Measuring the Effectiveness of Anti-Corruption Agencies”, developed with the participation of more than 100 experts worldwide, which formed the basis for the first research initiative assessing the effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies (hereinafter also – ACAs);

3) the report “Global Trends in Anti-Corruption Agency Effectiveness”, which contains the results of the analysis of survey data collected by IACA in summer 2025 from 50 ACAs across 46 countries, along with initial reflections.

The ACA effectiveness report notes that anti-corruption agencies are comparatively young institutions (their average “age” is 19 years). In most cases (74%), they operate as stand-alone and independent bodies; 48% of respondents also reported the existence of specialized anti-corruption courts.

At the same time, financial and human resource metrics indicate significant structural constraints on ACA operations. The average ACA budget per capita is only $1.6 per year, and more than half of all ACAs operate with less than $1 per capita (for comparison, average annual global military expenditure is $334 per capita – 200 times higher than ACA spending). Staffing levels also vary significantly: some ACAs have as few as six staff members, while others employ thousands (the highest figure was nearly 6,000 staff).

Based on the study, the authors highlight the following key findings:

ACAs are most effective in performing functions related to corruption prevention and education. The data show substantial achievement in the areas of Prevention of Corruption and Education and Awareness Raising, which register the highest global effectiveness scores – on average 78.4% and 82.1%, respectively.
Operational independence appears to positively influence ACA effectiveness in preventing corruption and handling complaints, as well as levels of public trust: the more operationally independent an ACA is, the higher its performance in these areas. Operational independence, in turn, correlates positively with robust external oversight mechanisms and with the ACA’s age.
Public trust in ACAs appears to be linked with several factors: prompt investigations, adequate and reliable funding, autonomy in resource management, staff quality, openness, engagement with civil society and the media, and the quality of the judiciary, which affects adjudication outcomes.
International cooperation and asset freezing, seizure, confiscation and return are the most problematic areas. These functions receive extremely low effectiveness scores due to the complexity of procedures, lack of resources, limited skills, and the growing role of cryptocurrencies and digital tools, which complicate the tracing of financial flows.
The results show that ACA age and budget per capita positively influence the effectiveness of international cooperation. Since an institution’s “age” cannot be adjusted through policy, it would be advisable to prioritize increased funding, which could substantially enhance international cooperation and, consequently, the outcomes related to asset tracing and recovery.

At the same time, IACA experts note several limitations of this initial study:

the research is based on data from only 50 ACAs, representing about one-third of all ACAs globally; therefore, broader coverage is necessary for more robust conclusions;
the results rely largely on self-reported data from ACAs, and although IACA corrected some inadvertent errors, additional external validation by academic experts is required to ensure full accuracy;
for several indicators, only a limited number of ACAs provided data (for example, only 8 out of 50 ACAs submitted figures on public trust), which reduces the reliability of some findings;
the results have not yet been compared with other corruption indices, which limits opportunities for triangulation.

Based on the pilot data, IACA has also launched an interactive ACA Effectiveness Dashboard. At this stage, the Dashboard includes 10 indicators and 24 sub-indicators, as well as aggregated global data from participating ACAs. In the near future, IACA plans to expand its research both geographically and substantively. The updated methodology (November 2025) already includes 17 key indicators and 36 sub-indicators, and next year additional survey questions for the new indicators are expected, with a higher number of ACAs anticipated to participate.