The Integrity Management approach is a systematic, bottom-up approach to identify and address integrity risks in the day-to-day operations and management of a water utility. This approach can be used to optimize business models and reduce risks, especially those integrity risks which affect a utility’s performance over the long term.
It does not represent a moralistic approach: it is not about finding and blaming individuals. Rather, it is about leveraging existing processes to lower the risk of malfunction and mismanagement and strengthen systems that can be more transparent, more accountable and ultimately reduce corrupt practices.
The approach offers a step-wise change process which includes bringing selected employees of the utility into a workshop to analyse current practices, identify risks and areas for improvement, and select concrete tools that are implemented via a IM roadmap over time. IM coaches support both decision making and implementation, without taking decisions on behalf of management, which allows for the building of sustainable action towards integrity.