IPACS: The International Partnership against Corruption in Sport

IPACS is a multi-stakeholder initiative created in 2017 under the aegis of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Its mission is to bring together stakeholders to eliminate corruption and promote a culture of good governance in sport, explains Konstantina Orologopoulou, who coordinates the scheme from Lausanne.

The IPACS Steering Committee, since 2017, agreed to set-up Task Forces that focus IPACS’ initial efforts on developing actionable solutions for addressing specific areas of corruption in sport:

• Task Force 1: reducing the risk of corruption in procurement relating to sporting events and infrastructure.
• Task Force 2: ensuring integrity in the selection of major sporting events.
• Task Force 3: strengthening good governance to mitigate the risk of corruption.
• Task Force 4: enhancing effective cooperation between law enforcement, criminal justice authorities and sport organisations.

Through this work, IPACS has developed a range of toolkits, based on the highest international anti-corruption standards and including a variety of best practice examples. The toolkits can support the IPACS stakeholders in mitigating corruption risks in the identified areas, while the recommendations are applicable at national or international level. In parallel, IPACS aims to develop an operational network between criminal justice, law enforcement authorities and sports organisations, which will be dealing with case management.

The promotion and implementation of good governance in sports organisations has been seen as key to preventing, addressing and managing corruption risks. The benefits of good governance further contribute to make the organisations effective, reliable, and accountable to their members and trusted by their partners and by the public. In 2022, IPACS Task Force 3 completed the Sport Governance Benchmark, which used as basis existing governance indicators developed by the International Sports Federations. The work of the Benchmark has been coordinated for IPACS by the Enlarged partial agreement on sport, in collaboration with about 30 experts from the sport movement and the governments. This Benchmark provides a common reference for governments and the sports movement on good governance in sport.

Since then, the Steering Committee identified the need to ensure that the IPACS tools are effectively disseminated among the IPACS partners and stakeholders to enhance good governance of sports organisations at national, regional and international levels. Thus, a new Task Force was established, merging Task Forces 1, 2 and 3: the Task Force on the Promotion of Good Governance to Prevent Corruption in Sport.

This article was published in the magazine Sport and Citizenship n°57 : protecting sport integrity