Panama to Analyze National Anti-Corruption Plan of Action

Panama will hold a workshop March 16 & 17 to discuss the details of its national anti-corruption Plan of Action.  The two-day event, organized by the National Council for Transparency Against Corruption and the General Secretariat of the OAS, will bring together representatives of Panama’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as well as civil society, the private sector and international lending and cooperation agencies. 

The Plan of Action provides a detailed roadmap for implementing the recommendations made by the Committee of Experts of the Mechanism for Follow-up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC).  The topics addressed in the Plan of Action include:

• Conflicts of interest

• Proper use of government resources

• Reporting acts of corruption

• Declaration of assets and liabilities

• Oversight bodies

• Civil society participation

• Mutual assistance and technical cooperation

• Systems of government hiring and procurement

• Whistleblower protection

•  Criminalization of acts of corruption

The Plan of Action identifies the specific actions necessary to implement the recommendations of the MESICIC Committee of Experts with regard to these topics.  It also identifies the institution or entity responsible for implementation, the estimated costs and resources needed, the time frame for execution, and lists indicators that measure the expected results and means of verification.

To access the draft Plan of Action which will be used as the starting point for discussion at the workshop, please click here.

The Plan of Action project is an initiative supported by the Anti-Corruption Fund.  To read more about the Plan of Action initiative click here. 

MESICIC Third Round Documents Available Online

The documents for the Third Round of MESICIC Review are now available on the Anti-Corruption Portal of the Americas.  These include the methodology for the round, the questionnaire which will be used to gather information directly from the states with respect to selected provisions of the Convention, the structure for the country reports, and the calendar, as well as the sequence for review and the composition of the review sub-groups.

The topics to be reviewed in the Third Round include the denial or elimination of favorable tax treatment for expenditures or payments made in violation of the anticorruption laws; the prevention of bribery of domestic and foreign government officials; the criminalization of translational bribery and illicit enrichment; and the extradition of those who commit acts of corruption