REPORT OF THE PROGRAMME
THE 23RD UNCAC TRAINING PROGRAMME (ONLINE)“TACKLING EMERGING THREATS OF CORRUPTION IN THE BORDERLESSAND DIGITALIZED WORLD”
1. Duration and Participants• From 22 September to 18 October 2021
• 27 overseas participants from 19 jurisdictions
2. Programme Overview
Globalization coupled with rapid progress of information technology has made trades and transactions
borderless and highly reliant on worldwide information flows in cyberspace. While these changes havecontributed to enormous economic growth, they have also made the fight against corruption more difficult
with a number of new and emerging challenges. To counter these challenges, this programme offeredparticipants an opportunity to share experiences and knowledge on (i) finding, preserving, collecting,analysing and utilizing electronic evidence; (ii) detection of corruption cases from various sources andgaining cooperation from witnesses, accomplices and citizens, and (iii) international cooperation.
This programme, for the first time in the history of UNAFEI’s International Training Courses andSeminars, was exclusively conducted online due to the Covid- 19 pandemic. In consideration of the timedifference between the participating countries around the world, two-hour session were conducted twicea day. The participants were offered a virtual conference room and chat room through which they wereable to communicate with the UNAFEI faculty and staff members as well as their colleagues in real time.
3. The Content of the Programme(1) Lectures
Since the participants needed to continue their professional and family duties during the programme,
the lectures were recorded in advance and broadcast on-demand for their convenience, followed bylive Q & A sessions with the lecturers. UNAFEI faculty members gave on-demand lectures on thecriminal justice system in Japan, as well as some live lectures on an overview of UNCAC, Japaneseanti-corruption measures, and international cooperation focusing on the bottlenecks in MLA. The
visiting experts from overseas and an ad hoc lecturer from Japan also gave informative lectures:
 Visiting Experts•

Dr. Thomas DoughertyInternational Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property
Attorney for Central, Southern and Eastern Europe
U.S. Department of Justice“Effective Use of Digital Evidence in Anti-Corruption Investigations and Prosecutions”•Mr. LAM Seow Kin
Deputy Director, Investigations
Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, Singapore“Effective Measures and Practical Challenges to Detect Corruption Cases from Various Sources”•Mr. Robin LEE
Chief, Digital Technology Office, Deputy Director, Investigations, Corrupt Practices Investigation
Bureau, Singapore“Effective Measures to Encourage Corruption Reporting”

 Ad hoc lecturer•

Mr. HACHIYA Kenichi
Assistant Director, Second Unit of Investigation Training Office Cybercrime Division, Community
Safety Bureau
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National Police Agency“Cybercrime Investigation Practice in Japan”(2) Group Work
Participants were divided into four groups based on time zones and the themes of their choice for theIndividual Presentation sessions and discussions.
 Individual Presentations
Participants shared the practices and the challenges in their respective jurisdictions regarding thetheme of the Programme through their individual presentations. All the presentations wererecorded and uploaded online for reference by participants in other groups or those who could notattend the sessions.
 Discussions
Participants had fruitful discussions on the themes of the Programme: (i) finding, preserving,collecting, analysing and utilizing electronic evidence; (ii) detection of corruption cases from various
sources and gaining cooperation from witnesses, accomplices and citizens, and (iii) international
cooperation, focusing on their challenges.

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Whistle-blower/witness protection
As for encouraging reporting, conventional measures such as anonymous reporting, exemption
from civil/criminal liability and confidentiality of the identification of the reporter were shared
as well as the use of new technology such as online-reporting systems and smartphone
applications which give the public easy access to the authority. As for witness protection, incourt measures such as confidentiality of the identity of the witness and video-link testimony
were discussed along with out-of-court measures such as the change of identification or relocationof the witness by the government. Measures to obtain cooperation from accomplices and hostile
witnesses was also discussed including deferred prosecution, plea agreement (or cooperationagreement) as well as subpoenas and the use of out-of-court statements as exceptions to thehearsay rule. It was mentioned that special units need to be established to deal with whistleblower/witness protection because of its sensitive nature. The Singaporean experience ofyounger-age education was also pointed out as being effective in obtaining cooperation from thepublic.

•Effective use of information, financial intelligence and other corruption leads
Regarding FIU information, it was mentioned that the value of FIU information needs to bedisseminated among criminal justice practitioners, and a successful case involving MLA basedon the FIU information to detect and prosecute corruption was shared. The challenges and bestpractices of inter-agency cooperation, especially between anti-corruption agencies and policeforces, were also shared. The Japanese leniency system of the Fair Trade Commission wasintroduced as a means to detect procurement-related corruption.

•Use of digital evidence
As for the challenges of collecting and analysing digital evidence，recovery of digital data,decrypting the locked devices seized and collection of digital data stored overseas, as well aslack of adequate laws, experts and tools to deal with digital evidence. As countermeasures, it
was discussed that timely freezing of the data by international cooperation and sharing of tools
and experts at the regional level as well as establishing sufficient legal frameworks and capacity-building of experts and investigators. As for the effective use of digital evidence at the trial
stage, best practices for authentication were discussed, such as procedures for collection andpreservation, establishing the “chain of custody”, including numbering the evidence, andtestimony by digital-forensics investigators and experts. Japanese precedent was also shared on
the admissibility of digital evidence obtained from overseas servers.

•International cooperation
The lengthy, complicated process of mutual legal assistance was discussed as one of the primarychallenges to international cooperation. To overcome these challenges, the use of informal

REPORT OF THE PROGRAMME
professional networks and information sharing were identified as important steps. Practices
were also shared on collecting and analysing digital evidence in collaboration with law
enforcement agencies in other countries. As for the collection of digital evidence, it was pointed
out that the Budapest Convention is a valuable tool for handling preservation requests andmutual legal assistance, provided the parties to the request are member states.
(3) Action Plans
Each participant concluded the programme by presenting their own action plans based on thechallenges they identified and what they learned in the lectures, presentations by the colleagues anddiscussions. Despite the lack of in-person interaction, most participants said they were quite satisfied
that the programme had been helpful in acquiring knowledge on anti-corruption measures.

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