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MESICIC of the OAS Notes Progress in the Region in the Fight against Corruption

The governments of the member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) took 748 relevant actions to combat corruption in their countries between December 2010 and March 2013, observed the Inter-American Convention against Corruption and the Follow-Up Mechanism for its Implementation (MESICIC) of the OAS.

According to the Second Progress Report on Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, the states party took actions related to the prevention of conflicts of interest; public procurement; the declaration of assets; the prevention and punishment of bribery and other acts of corruption and illicit enrichment; the protection of those who report such acts; international cooperation for the investigation thereof and extradition of offenders; and access to public information and mechanisms to encourage the participation of civil society in the fight against corruption.

On the importance of the mechanism, the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, highlighted that the MESICIC " helps our countries to strengthen their legal and institutional frameworks to address corruption more effectively, to make concrete recommendations so that they can benefit from the provisions of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, to prevent, detect, punish and eradicate this scourge through successful implementation."

The report, based on information submitted by the countries themselves, summarizes the actions taken against corruption by states both individually as well as following up on the recommendations issued by the MESICIC Committee of Experts in its rounds of analysis. The measures consist of the issuance of laws and other legal norms; the processing of legislative initiatives; activities aimed at training, capacity building and international cooperation; and the implementation of technological systems and tools aimed at strengthening states instruments to fight corruption, in order to achieve greater effectiveness in its prevention, detection and punishment.

According to the results of the analysis, the states of the Americas focused primarily on strengthening their institutional and legal frameworks to combat corruption, with 52 percent of the measures taken aimed at this goal. In second place were training activities, which garnered 25 percent of the actions taken.

The report also contains country by country details of the actions taken by Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The First Progress Report on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption, which compiled the progress of member states between June 2008 and December 2010, is available here.

The Committee of Experts of MESICIC is composed of experts in the field of combating corruption appointed by each of the 31 states party to the Mechanism. The Committee is the body that is responsible for the technical analysis of implementation of the provisions of the Convention by the States Parties, and is responsible for tracking the progress made by the States Parties.

To fulfill its task, the Committee carries out a process of reciprocal or mutual evaluation between states, in successive "rounds" in which specific aspects of the Convention are analyzed. The Second Progress Report includes tracking the recommendations of the first three rounds of Analysis (First, Second and Third). La . The Fourth Round, currently underway, includes new developments such as "on site" visits to countries with their consent, the analysis of the supervisory bodies on issues related to corruption, and inclusion in the process of reviews of private sector organizations, professional associations, academics and researchers, in addition to the civil society participants that were already considered.

For more information on the report and MESICIC visit the Anti-Corruption Portal of the Americas.

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

Reference: E-463/13