Media Center

Press Release


Regional Meeting on Accountability of Private Sector in Combating Corruption Co-organized by the OAS Concluded in Colombia

  March 13, 2013

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the government of Colombia recently held in Bogotá the first "Regional Meeting on Private Sector Accountability in Combating Corruption" organized under the framework of the Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC).

The event aimed to promote joint strategic actions involving enhanced implementation of the OAS Conventions on the subject as well as the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conventions.

The meeting, which take place during the Chairmanship of Colombia as head of the Committee of Experts of MESISIC, was attended by government officials and panelists from countries in the Americas and Europe, who proposed joint lines of action to develop policies and public-private alliances in the establishing of concrete commitments from the private sector in the fight against corruption.

The responsibility of the private sector in preventing and combating corruption is a matter of common interest to the Member States of the OAS, which is part of the purpose of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and MESICIC to promote and facilitate cooperation to prevent, detect, punish and eradicate corruption.

The event was supported and sponsored by the OECD, the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), the European Union Programme for the Promotion of Social Cohesion in Latin America (EUROsociAL II) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and addressed issues related to the liability of legal persons in the fight against corruption, the protection of persons reporting acts of corruption; listings and pro-ethics records and international standards of corporate ethics and its instruments.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org

Reference: E-091/13