SURINAME RECEIVES ON-SITE VISIT OF THE OAS ANTICORRUPTION MECHANISM (MESICIC)

From April 1 – 3, 2013, Suriname received, with its consent, a visit by a Commission of the OAS Anticorruption Mechanism (Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption – MESICIC), as part of the review process of said Mechanism, carried out in accordance with the Methodology adopted by consensus by its Member States.

The Commission was composed of María Soledad Machuca Vidal, Deputy Attorney-General of the Attorney General’s Office of Paraguay; Camila Colares Bezerra, General Coordinator of Agreements and International Cooperation of the Office of the Comptroller General of Brazil; Márcia Luciana Dantas, of the Procurator General’s Office of Brazil; Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima, Regional Procurator of Brasil and Deputy Secretary of International Cooperation; and Tiago Santos Faria, Procedural Analist of the Procurator General’s Office of Brazil, who represented their countries before the Mechanism. They were supported by the General Secretariat of the OAS in the visit, through its Department of Legal Cooperation in its capacity as the Technical Secretariat to the MESICIC.

During the three days of work, the members of the Commission met with representatives of the High Court, the Office of the Attorney General, the Central National Accountant’s Agency (CLAD), as well as the Ministry of Justice and Police and representatives of the National Assembly, in order to obtain objective and complete information and reveal potential difficulties in the implementation of the Inter-American Convention. It also provided an opportunity to facilitate the obtaining of information related to best practices, and provided Suriname the opportunity to benefit from or to request technical assistance. 

The Commission also had the opportunity to meet with organizations from civil society and the private sector, professional associations, academics and researchers, in order to address issues on conflicts of interest; systems for declaring income, assets, and liabilities; access to public information; civil society participation mechanisms in the public administration; and the work of oversight bodies for the prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of acts of corruption.

The results of this visit forms part of the review process that is currently being carried out by the Committee of Experts of the MESICIC, and which will conclude with the adoption of the Suriname country report by the Committee at its next plenary meeting to be held in September 2014, in Washington DC at OAS Headquarters.

The MESICIC is a cooperation mechanism between States, with the participation of civil society organizations, established within the framework of the OAS, in which the legal/institutional framework of each country is reviewed for suitability with the Inter-American Convention against Corruption as well as the objective results achieved therein. The incorporation of on-site visits as a stage and integral part of the MESICIC review process represents an innovative and pioneering initiative in the context of the OAS, especially for a peer review mechanism and the importance of the issues it addresses.

For more information on the MESICIC, please visit the Anti-Corruption Portal of the Americas.