The Central Service for the Prevention of Corruption
The Central Service for the Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) attached to the minister of Justice an autonomous interministerial structure created by the law of January 29th, 1993.
Headed by a magistrate of the judiciary, composed of magistrates (coming from the judicial, financial or administrative orders) and senior civil servants of different ministries (Economy, Interior, Justice), its members have a duty of professional confidentiality.
The centralisation and the exploitation of information related to the detection and to the prevention of facts of corruption.
In this respect, it works with all the ministries and other actors concerned by the fight against corruption (Justice, Interior, Economy).
The synthesis of information gathered this way by the SCPC and the typology of the mechanisms of fraud, which result from it, are published in the annual activity report edited by the SCPC. This document, delivered to the Prime minister and to minister of Justice first, then made public, can also contain proposals to the Government (notably of legislative reforms) regarding policies of prevention of corruption.
The guidance to the administrative and judicial authorities.
The law of January 29th, 1993 stipulates that the SCPC can be referred for requests of opinion by "the administrative authorities ".
The decree of February 22nd, 1993 related to the SCPC lists the authorities: ministers; prefects; heads of financial jurisdictions; presidents of various committees of control or examination services; presidents and managers of state-owned companies; public accountants; local elected representatives.
The SCPC also helps out, at their request, the judicial authorities seized with corruption scandals or with assimilated offences.
Although it doesn’t constitute an expertise in the procedural sense of the term, the S.C.P.C. brings a logistical and technical support to the jurisdictions in the form of technical notes deposited in the file and subjected to the contradictory debate of the parties.
Besides, the S.C.P.C. was led to spread its field of activity in two directions.
The sensitisation and the training in the prevention of corruption.
The Service conducts for the French firms, be it private or public ones, sensitisation actions, notably as part of protocols of exchange of information, of training, of participation in working groups with trade organisations, or of assistance to the development of deontological codes.
These actions are also provided to the Grandes Ecoles and French universities.
The international action.
Since 1993, the various international agreements negotiated and adopted concerning the fight against corruption made of the SCPC a front-running actor in the international mechanisms of cooperation in the fight against corruption.
The Service indeed is statutorily present in several international forums, especially as part of different working groups in charge with the monitoring of the major international conventions: ONUDC, OECD, GRECO …
On top of these actions conducted in a multilateral framework, the SCPC receives many foreign delegations and participates bilaterally in programs of training, of sensitisation, of reforms, either directly, or as part of programs financed by the international institutions.
The Central Service for the Prevention of Corruption
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