Human Talent Management and Corruption Control: The Effect of the New Talents in Government Control Program on the Detection of Corruption in Peru

Government oversight initiatives have demonstrated some effectiveness in the fight against corruption. However, lessons can be learned from the literature with regard to the impact of improvements in the auditors capacities and knowledge on effectiveness. This paper seeks to present evidence on the impact on efficiency of the New Talents in Government Control (Nuevos Talentos en Control Gubernamental) program, instigated by the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República, or CGR) in Peru with respect to processing citizen complaints. This program offers a rigorous training and specialization process for professionals who are recruited from outside the CGR and selected on merit (with a 1.25 percent acceptance rate), Civil servants who successfully complete the selection process and receive the training are expected to achieve a better performance. Using data from the CGR complaints system and from the specialized train-ing, the difference-in-differences methodology was applied to evaluate the impact of the program at the regional office level. The results showed that the offices that incorporated New Talents into their team increased their success rate in dealing with complaints by 36 percentage points, and the success rate of incidents reported rose by 32 percentage points, while the success rate for warnings improved by 27 percentage points. According to these preliminary results, the program appears to be an effective initiative for improving the CGRs internal processes and contributing to the fight against corruption.