Waging Peace:  Costa Rica

Building a Model for Transparency

Costa Rica was one of the three countries, including Jamaica and Ecuador, where The Carter Center launched its efforts to reduce corruption and promote transparency in the Americas.
Since the Center's Americas Program began its Transparency Project in 1998, Costa Rica President Miguel Ángel Rodríguez has instituted several reforms:

1. Established the Concertación Nacional, a forum through which the government has shaped a reform agenda
2. Created and filled the post of a transparency adviser
3. Recommended creating a special prosecutor's office and jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute ethics cases
4. Issued a decree against displaying the president's portrait in public offices and
5. Issued a decree prohibiting the use or display of public officials' names in public works built with public funds.

1. Reforming the penal code
2. Establishing a code of conduct for public servants
3. Instituting a financial administration and public budget law
4. Abolishing the executive pardon and
5. Eliminating public officials' immunity from prosecution.

To promote the role of civil society in monitoring public contracting and to increase awareness of anti-corruption practices, the program held a seminar in April 2000 in Costa Rica. Participants hailed the seminar, "Civil Society Monitoring of Public Contracts and Procurement," as the first time all three sectors – government, the private sector, and civil society - came together and agreed on civil society's participation in the monitoring process.