Tetra Tech Celebrates Progress for Rule of Law and Justice in Peru
On January 26, 2016, Tetra Tech celebrated the successful completion of the three-year Promoting Justice and Integrity in Public Administration (Pro-Integridad) project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in Peru. The event highlighted the project’s many accomplishments in reducing country-wide corruption and was attended by the USAID Mission Director of Peru Mr. Lawrence Rubey, Peru’s Vice Minister of Justice Ernesto Lechuga, and Peru Supreme Court Justice Ramiro de Valdivia.
As the prime implementer of the Pro-Integridad project, Tetra Tech worked with local counterparts to improve the judicial system’s capacity to resolve corruption cases under the new criminal procedure code and advance a culture of institutional integrity. We worked in Lima, Loreto, Callao, and the Amazon regions to increase the judicial system’s capacity to resolve corruption cases; enhance the judiciary’s ability to address internal corruption; and strengthen the judicial system’s capacity to address corruption through effective civil society engagement.
Notable project accomplishments include achieving full adoption and use of the new criminal procedure code in institutions handling corruption cases. Through Pro-Integridad, Tetra Tech introduced and implemented management modules to increase efficiency and provided state-of-the-art training to judges and prosecutors. Pro-Integridad also assisted prosecutors in the Ministry of Justice with developing a unique computerized simulator process that enables the courts and prosecutors to use objective criteria in calculating damages to the state from cases involving official corruption. The Pro-Integridad team built the calculation process and software, which is the first of its kind in the region and can be updated to accommodate future judiciary needs.
Through the project, our team worked with the Ministry of Justice to implement our Institutional Integrity Model (IIM), which models an organizational culture based on ethical conduct of workers and institutional procedures designed to reduce the risk of corruption and diminish functional inefficiencies at the organizational level. The Ministry of Justice committed to a workforce-wide effort to adopt the IIM and instill a culture of institutional integrity. This process will serve as a model for all governmental units in Peru.
The project also worked to enhance public access to and understanding of the courts. It provided grants to engage civil society organizations, particularly those representing indigenous populations, with the courts and conducted several citizen workshops to explain court monitoring and access. Additionally, Pro-Integridad developed a manual to provide insight on how to craft judicial statements in plain and understandable language and a search engine to access previous court judgments in corruption cases.