In the past five years, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (Agency/ASK) has faced numerous challenges through the process of its institutional growth. Although the public's expectations were high, the initial results of the Agency's work and the effects of the interventions it implemented were not convincing for the general public.

The reason for this is that the ASK failed to achieve the expected results and build a public reputation as a strong and authoritative institution - key to the effective fight against corruption and the overall progress of the country's EU integration process. Although there have been some positive developments recently, especially after the appointment of the Agency's new administrative structure, additional efforts are needed to change the public's perception of the Agency's work and increase citizens' trust in the Agency's work. Recent public opinion surveys and reports of international organizations can serve as an incentive to further strengthen the Agency's image in the national context.

This work is aimed at evaluating the Agency's regular annual and quarterly reporting, and defining recommendations for its improvement. This work will not evaluate the content of the information presented in the adopted reports, nor is it intended to defend or attack the work of the Agency. It will offer recommendations for improving the Agency's reporting based on the analysis of the report's structure and elements.

The Agency's existing reporting system consists of annual, quarterly and special 'thematic reports'. They are mainly based on the activities of the Agency and the presentation of collected information, which is obtained by law enforcement under its jurisdiction.

It is still not entirely clear whether the Agency's reporting concept is appropriate and whether it should be more focused on reporting based on the performance of the implementation of the national anti-corruption policy. The existing reporting concept carries the risk that significant results of the Agency will not be adequately presented or that they will be lost in the mass of presented information. However, in the last six months, certain improvements in the reporting process are visible.

This paper is divided into four thematic parts that offer evaluations of different elements of the Agency's reporting - from general/horizontal to more specific/formal issues. In the first part, horizontal issues related to the Agency's reporting are analyzed, with the target audience at the center of the Agency's overall capacities to objectively present the achieved work results. The second thematic part of this paper is devoted to the assessment of the regular reporting process of ASK, with an emphasis on the last adopted annual report for 2020 and the first quarterly report for 2021. Assessments of reporting elements and specific recommendations on indicators that could be useful for systemic performance reporting are presented throughout this part of the paper. Questions related to the quarterly reporting of ASK are assessed in the third thematic part of this paper. In the end, general findings and recommendations for improving the Agency's overall reporting process are presented in the last part of this paper.