The Closing Conference of the joint EU/CoE project “Strengthening the Coordination of Anti-Corruption Policies and Practices in Turkey” (TYSAP) was held in Ankara on 13 May 2015. The purpose of the Closing Conference was to present and disseminate project deliverables and to present and discuss the TYSAP project outcomes, lessons learnt and impact. 

The TYSAP project’s implementation started in January 2013 and was completed on 28 May 2015. The project provided assistance to the Turkish authorities in enhancing the expertise of the inspectors, auditors and controllers of various institutions in modern investigation and reporting techniques, data collection and analysis, information sharing and developing sector specific anti-corruption policies. It also strengthened the expertise of Prime Ministry Inspection Board’s (PMIB) inspectors on coordinating corruption investigations and implementing anti-corruption policies across relevant agencies, as well as monitoring the implementation of the national anti-corruption strategy. 

Some 250 participants in the conference included senior officials from stakeholder institutions, inspectors from beneficiary agencies, experts and representatives of civil society organisations. 

Opening speeches were made by the Undersecretary of the Ministry for EU Affairs - Mr. Rauf Engin Soysal, the Head of Prime Ministry Inspection Board - Mr Yunus Arinci, the Head of Action against Crime Department of Council of Europe - Mr Ivan Koedjikov, the Charge d’Affairs a.i. of the EU Delegation to Turkey - Mr Bela Szombati and the Head of Central Finance and Contracts Unit of Undersecretariat of Treasury of Turkey Ms Emine Doger. All the speakers stressed the significance of cooperation between Turkey, the EU and the CoE and highly appreciated the achievements of the project. 

The opening part of the conference was followed by two panel discussions. The first one included civil society representatives and focused on discussing the Investigation Guide developed under the project and the current anti-corruption framework in Turkey. The second panel was composed of representatives of project beneficiaries and the CoE and focused on specific deliverables and outcomes of TYSAP project.

During the project implementation period 21 events (workshops, training of trainers, training seminars, study visits, working group meetings, Launching and Closing Conferences) took place with participation of up to 881 persons. The share of female participants in these events was approximately 20%. 

The following are the main results achieved under the project: 

• The existing national legislative framework on administrative investigations, information sharing and coordination was analysed and an Investigation Guide for Inspectors was developed . The Guide represents a compilation of Turkish laws and regulations on conducting administrative investigations. 
• The corruption data collection methodology was developed and data collection exercises were conducted by project beneficiaries. Subsequently, maps of corruption prone areas were produced by each beneficiary institution. A handbook was developed on “Conducting Needs Assessment and on Designing, Implementing and Monitoring Anti-corruption Policies for Different Sectors”. 
• A pool of 22 trainers from all beneficiary institutions was established. The trainers were trained on modern corruption investigation and information sharing techniques, on conducting risk assessment and developing, implementing and monitoring sector specific anti-corruption strategies. Subsequently, around 200 inspectors from beneficiary institutions were trained by the selected trainers.

• Agenda
• Press release