THE TECHNICAL SECRETARIAT AND NATIONAL EXPERTS OF THE OAS ANTI-CORRUPTION MECHANISM PARTICIPATED IN THE "SECOND FORUM OF CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC FOR TRANSPARENCY"

The Technical Secretariat of the Mechanism for Follow Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) and the national experts of El Salvador and Costa Rica to the Mechanism participated in the “Second Forum of Central America and the Dominican Republic for Transparency," which took place on November 2 and 3 in San Jose, Costa Rica.

This event, attended by representatives of the governments of Central America and of the Dominican Republic, as well as the private sector and civil society, had the objective to coordinate the measures to eradicate corruption, exchange experiences and discuss relevant issues on topics such as corruption and insecurity; judicial transparency; corruption in law enforcement and organized crime; political financing; the implementation of international conventions against corruption; protection for whistleblowers; and the role of the private sector and media in the fight against corruption.

The Technical Secretariat of the MESICIC, represented by Mr. Luiz Marcelo Azevedo, as well as Mr. Gilberth Calderon, Director of the Office of Public Ethics of Costa Rica, and Mr. Marcos Rodriguez, Under-secretary of Transparency and Anti-corruption of El Salvador, both lead representatives of their respective countries to the MESICIC Committee of Experts, participated in the panel, "Compliance of International Anticorruption Commitments in Central America." On that occasion, the representative of the MESICIC Technical Secretariat presented a report on compliance with these commitments based on the reviews made by the MESICIC, while the national experts of Costa Rica and El Salvador referred to the challenges that such compliance means within the perspective of the state organs.

In addition, Ms. Tatiana Gutierrez, of the Office of Public Ethics of Costa Rica, participated in the workshop, "Mechanisms of Public Reporting and Protection of Victims, Whistleblowers and Witnesses of corruption", where she shared the Costa Rican experience and emphasized the usefulness of the MESICIC recommendations on the subject and the “Draft Model Law to Facilitate and Encourage the Reporting of Acts of Corruption and to Protect Whistleblowers and Witnesses," which is available on the Anti-Corruption Portal of the Americas.

This second edition of the Forum was organized jointly by the Government of the Republic of Costa Rica, through the Vice-President and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Transparency International, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the State Program of the Region and the Foundation for Peace and Democracy (FUNPADEM).

The third edition will take place in 2012 in Honduras.

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.

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