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OAS Anticorruption Mechanism Held On-Site Visit to Canada

A Commission of the Anti-Corruption Mechanism of the Organization of American States (OAS) held an “on-site” visit from October 16-18 to Canada, as part of the analysis that the mechanism carries out in accordance with the methodology adopted by consensus among its member countries.

The Commission of the Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) was made up of Judith Jones-Morgan, Attorney General for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; and Karem Valverde, Attorney in the Ministry for Institutional Transparency and the Fight against Corruption of Bolivia. They were supported by the OAS during the visit, through its Department of Legal Cooperation, in its capacity as the Technical Secretariat to the MESICIC.

The Commission was welcomed in Ottawa by the Associate Deputy Minister of Justice of Canada, Pierre Legault, and the Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Boehm. In their opening remarks, both emphasized the importance of on-site visits in the successful work of the Mechanism and the important role undertaken by Canada in the negotiations for the establishment of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and the MESICIC.

During the three day visit, members of the Commission met with representatives of the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, the Public Service Commission and the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs of Canada, in order to obtain objective and complete information and reveal potential difficulties in the implementation of the Inter-American Convention. The team also obtained information on the implementation of the recommendations that were formulated by the MESICIC to Canada in First Round, pertaining to, among other issues, the prevention of conflicts of interest and post-employment restrictions; the reporting of acts of corruption; and systems for registering income, assets and liabilities, of public servants.

The team also had the opportunity to meet with Transparency International Canada in order to address issues such as the cooperation between civil society and oversight bodies in Canada as well as its views on the role of said oversight bodies in the fight against corruption.

The results of this visit form part of the review process for the Fourth Round that is currently being carried out by the Committee of Experts of the MESICIC, which will conclude with the adoption of the Canada country report by the Committee at its next plenary meeting to be held in March 2014, in Washington DC at OAS Headquarters.

The MESICIC is a cooperation mechanism between states, with the participation of civil society organizations, established within the framework of the OAS, in which the legal/institutional framework of each country is reviewed for suitability with the Inter-American Convention against Corruption as well as the objective results achieved therein. The incorporation of on-site visits as a stage and integral part of the MESICIC review process represents an innovative and pioneering initiative in the context of the OAS, especially for a peer review mechanism and the importance of the issues it addresses.

To date, the following countries have agreed to receive visits from MESICIC: Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Costa Rica, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Guyana and Canada.

For more information on the MESICIC, please visit the Anti-Corruption Portal of the Americas.

Reference: E-401/13