OAS ANTICORRUPTION MECHANISM HOLDS ITS TWENTIETH MEETING

The Organization of American States (OAS) is to host the Twentieth Meeting of the Committee of Experts of the OAS Anticorruption Mechanism (MESICIC). This event will mark the formal launch of the Fourth Round of Review, during which a comprehensive assessment of the main corruption oversight bodies in the 31 states of the Americas that make up the MESICIC will be conducted.

This meeting, which is to take place during the week of September 10 to 14, 2012, will give the Committee of Experts the opportunity to consider, first of all, the country reports on Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, Bolivia, and Paraguay, all of which gave their consent to receive an on-site visit by the members of their respective review subgroups and by the OAS General Secretariat, in its capacity as the Technical Secretariat of the MESICIC, as part of the review process.

In addition, the Committee of Experts will press ahead with its consideration of a topic of collective interest, that of the responsibility of the private sector in preventing and combating corruption, with a view to adopting a set of guidelines on the basic principles or ground rules that could be considered for inclusion in national laws or regulatory frameworks in order to promote, strengthen, or ensure the responsibility of the private sector in preventing and combating corruption.

The meeting will also be informed of recent progress with the Open Government Partnership initiative (OGP) and will continue taking advantage of the opportunities for cooperation and mutual strengthening between the MESICIC and the OGP.

Finally, before the work of this Twentieth Meeting officially begins, the Committee of Experts will hold an informal meeting with representatives of nongovernmental organizations and civil society from some of the states under review on this occasion.

The Mechanism for Follow-up on Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) is an instrument for cooperation among states, with the participation of civil society organizations, that has been established within the framework of the OAS and that serves to analyze each country’s legal and institutional structures, their compliance with the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, and the objective results obtained. The inclusion of on-site visits as an integral stage in the MESICIC review process represents a pioneering and innovative initiative within the OAS, particularly in that it involves a peer-based evaluation mechanism and on account of the importance of the topics with which it deals.

For further information on the MESICIC,  visit the Anticorruption Portal of the Americas.