Online version of this Newsletter:
http://www.oas.org/juridico/newsletter/nl_en.htm


THIRD ROUND OF THE MESICIC CONCLUDES SUCCESSFULLY;
FOURTH ROUND, INCLUDING ON-SITE VISITS, BEGINS


The Committee of Experts of the Mechanism for Follow-Up Mechanism on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) held its Nineteenth Meeting on September 12 to 16, 2011. During this meeting, it adopted important decisions that represent significant progress in the process of cooperation for the implementation of the Convention that is being undertaken in the framework of this Mechanism.

With the approval of these decisions, which first dealt with the adoption of the country reports for Grenada, Suriname, Brazil, and Belize, the Third Round of Review came to a successful conclusion. During this Round, concrete recommendations were formulated to the member countries of the Mechanism in order to address the shortcomings and inadequacies detected in their legal frameworks pertaining to the denial of favorable tax treatment for concealed bribery payments; deterrents to the bribery of domestic and foreign government officials; criminal sanctions for transnational bribery and illicit enrichment; and extradition of the perpetrators of acts of corruption.

Evaluations were also carried out during this Round on the progress made by the countries in implementing the recommendations that were formulated in the first two rounds. These dealt with the prevention of conflicts of interest; the proper conservations of public resources; the criminalization of acts of corruption and protection for those that report these acts; encouragement of civil society participation in anticorruption efforts; systems of government procurement of goods and services and for the hiring of public servants; systems for registering income, assets and lia
bilities of public servants; and international legal cooperation for investigating and prosecuting acts of corruption.

The reports for the 27 countries reviewed in the Third Round are available on the Anti-Corruption Portal of the Americas. Also available is the Hemispheric Report of the round, which was adopted by the Committee at this meeting and which summarizes its results and clearly sets out the most common recommendations and the progress made by the countries as a whole in implementing the recommendations formulated to them during the first two rounds.

Also worthy of note were the important decisions adopted for the commencement of the Fourth Round, during which a comprehensive review will be conducted of the oversight bodies for preventing, detecting, and punishing acts of corruption. These referred to the methodology for review, the questionnaire for gathering the relevant information from the countries, the structure that the country reports are to follow, the order in which the countries will be reviewed, the composition of the review subgroups, and the timetable for the round. The documents in question may be consulted at the link given above.

It should be recalled that at its Eighteenth Meeting, the Committee adopted the methodology for conducting on-site visits. These planned visits, which represent an innovative step in the review process, will allow for an “on the field” knowledge of the way the Convention is being implemented and will serve to strengthen the interactions with the authorities responsible for its implementation and with civil society organizations and other private sector organizations, professional associations, academics and researchers interested in the fight against corruption. Of the 31 member countries that currently make up the MESICIC, 29 have granted their consent to receive on-visits during the Fourth Round.


Edition N° 75 - October 2011

What is the MESICIC?

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

 

 

Click here to subscribe or unsubscribe from this newsletter.

Department of Legal Cooperation
19th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington DC 20006