OAS ANTI-CORRUPTION MECHANISM ADOPTS CANADA REPORT

At its Twenty-Third Meeting, held March 18 – 21, the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism for the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) adopted the Canada report on the implementation of this treaty in the context of the Fourth Round of Review of the Mechanism.

A significant portion of the report focused on examination of those oversight bodies in Canada with the responsibility for the prevention, detection, punishment and eradication of acts of corruption. Accordingly, the report examines the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, the Public Service Commission, and the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs. The progress made by Canada in relation to the recommendations of the First Round of the MESICIC was also reviewed. 

The examination was carried out taking into account Canada’s response to a questionnaire, information gathered by the Technical Secretariat, and, as a new and important source of information, an on-site visit conducted October 16 - 18, 2013. This visit was carried out by a team comprising of Bolivia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as members of the MESICIC Technical Secretariat. During that visit, the review team met with representatives of the aforementioned government institutions as well with the civil society organization, Transparency International Canada.  

Some of the recommendations formulated to Canada for its consideration in connection with the aforementioned bodies are, among others, the following:

 With regard to the Treasury Board Secretariat, consider exploring additional means to meet the training and information needs of personnel involved in internal disclosure of wrongdoing; utilize the Management Accountability Framework to monitor, evaluate and provide feedback on the manner in which organizations are implementing their internal disclosure procedures; and ensure that support is provided to chief executives with advice and assistance as needed and requested in relation to the creation and establishment of Codes of Conduct.

Regarding the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, consider updating their guides and manuals, in particular the Federal Prosecution Service Deskbook and the Proposed Best Practices for Prosecuting Fraud against Governments; provide the Public Prosecution Service of Canada with the budgetary and human resources needed for adequate enforcement of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, within available resources; and make publicly available its statistical information with respect to relevant criminal code provisions on offences related to acts of corruption, in a manner that is more readily available to the general public. 

 Pertaining to the Public Service Commission, consider reviewing the control measures in place to ensure that it is effectively monitoring the delegated appointment process within the Public Service Commission; review the appointment process carried out by Public Service Commission to ensure that hiring is based on merit; and update its guides and manuals, in particular the Audit Manual and those relating to investigations.

With respect to the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs, consider taking steps to report whether or not founded wrongdoings have occurred, as set out in the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, in the Proactive Disclosure section of its website; conclude with the implementation of the action plan that was developed to address the findings of the Public Service Commission audit; and ensure that completed internal audit reports, including management action plans, are made accessible to the public on its website, in a timely manner.

With regard to the follow-up on the recommendations formulated to Canada in the First Round of this Mechanism, the following advances are noted: improving evaluation mechanisms to analyze the results of enforcement of conflict of interest provisions; and developing procedures to analyze the mechanisms mentioned in the report of the First Round of Review and the recommendations contained therein.

Some of the recommendations still pending from the First Round or have been reformulated address issues such as: adopting measures to ensure that post-employment restrictions for public servants can be enforced; adopt provisions to establish the obligation on public servants to report to appropriate authorities those acts of corruption set out in the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, that they come across in the performance of public functions; and adopt measures to facilitate the timely review of Conflict of Interest Reports submitted in accordance with the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector and other policies on conflicts of interest and post-employment adopted throughout the public service.

Canada also provided information, for inclusion in the report, an initiative by the Treasury Board Secretariat on developing on-line courses on the topic of values and ethics for public servants and managers, in conjunction with the Canada School of Public Service as well as the awareness building efforts undertaken by the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs to inform the public of its mandate.

During this Twenty-Third Meeting, similar reports were adopted for the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana and Nicaragua. The Canada report adopted by the Committee, as well as those of the aforementioned countries, is available here.