The Integrity Pact (IP) is a tool to help governments, businesses and the civil society to fight corruption in public contracting and procurement. The IP establishes mutual contractual rights and obligations to reduce the high procurement cost and adverse effects of corruption. It covers all contract-related activities from pre-selection of bidders, bidding and contracting, to make public contracting and procurement transparent by binding all to ethical conduct. It also envisages a monitoring role for the civil society which is the ultimate beneficiary of such action.
The IP was first introduced in India in 2006 with the support of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) has also supported the concept of IP for controlling corruption in contracting. The Prime Minister in his address on August 26, 2009 to CBI and State Anti-corruption Bureau mentioned IP as a tool to curb corruption. Since 2006, 51 Central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) & other organizations have signed MoUs with TI India committing for adoption of IP. As reported by various PSUs, it has proved to be an effective tool in tackling the malpractices in procurement & contracts.