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Costa Rica’s legislative framework will
be strengthened through the National Plan of Action
On October 28 and 29, 2010, the
Department of Legal Cooperation of the
OAS Secretariat for Legal Affairs, and the Attorney General’s Office of
the Republic of Costa Rica, held a workshop in San Jose, for the purpose
of evaluating and strengthening the efficiency of the National Plan of
Action for the implementation of the recommendations formulated to that
country by the Mechanism for Follow-up on the Implementation of the
Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC).
The
Draft Action Plan, prepared by a Costa
Rican expert in anti-corruption and transparency issues, evaluates the
level of implementation of the recommendations formulated by the MESICIC
during the
First,
Second, and
Third Rounds of Review. These
recommendations are wide in scope, as the cover a wide range of topics,
such as institutional measures for protection of corruption
whistleblowers; standards for the prevention of conflicts of interest;
the hiring of public servants and the procurement of works, goods and
services by the State; and systems for disseminating public information
in order to spread a culture of transparency and stimulate civil society
participation in the fight against corruption. The Plan of Action
program is critical for ensuring that the recommendations formulated
during the MESICIC meetings go beyond agreements, and into concrete
actions for their implementation.
In his opening remarks, the First Vice-President of the Republic, Alfio
Piven Mesen, made reference to the importance of the Plan for combating
corruption. He went on to encourage the participants to do everything
possible to enrich the Plan, in order for it to serve as a useful tool
for Costa Rica to use to combat this scourge.
The diversity and the large number of participants at the workshop
reflect the importance of the Plan of Action. More than 80
representatives from public institutions, professional associations, the
private sector, and civil society, as well as high-level authorities,
including the Attorney General, the Prosecutor General and the
Sub-comptroller, were present in order to review the proposed Plan of
Action and express their opinions and suggestions to facilitate the
implementation of the MESICIC recommendations in Costa Rica. Their
specific knowledge and in the corresponding areas allowed them to
critically evaluate the proposed actions and timetables, the
institutions involved in the implementation process and the indicators
on progress in this process, which were all included in the proposed
Plan of Action.
The pertinent recommendations and suggestions made by the participants
will be incorporated in the final version of the Plan of Action, with
the goal of ensuring that the private sector and civil society in
general take on responsibility for the fight against corruption and the
encouragement of greater transparency in Costa Rica. In fact, the
diversity of the participants was an essential component for the success
of the national workshop. Being able to count on the participation of
high-level representatives with decision-making authority, from all
branches of the Costa Rican government, as well as from civil society in
general, was a concrete achievement for the OAS and the Office of the
Attorney General.
With this workshop, Costa Rica joins the growing number of countries of
the hemisphere that have a Plan of Action for the implementation of the
MESICIC recommendations by having taken advantage of the cooperation
program offered by the OAS General Secretariat in order to facilitate
the preparation and adoption of the plans for this purpose.
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Edition N° 43 - November 2010
The Mechanism For Follow-up on the
Implementation of the Inter-American
Convention against Corruption, known as MESICIC for its Spanish acronym, is a tool to
support the development of the Inter-American
Convention against Corruption through
cooperation between States Parties.
Read more
here…
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