THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
PRESENTATION TO THE OAS WORKING GROUP ON PROBITY AND PUBLIC ETHICS IN SPECIAL SESSION

FLORENCIA JUBANY
POLICY ANALYST
CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR THE AMERICAS (FOCAL)
[email protected]

MARCH 31, 2000

• What should be the role of civil society in containing corruption?
  

From what we have learnt, we are convinced that civil society, that is, all sectors that are outside government -- the media, NGOs, academia and the private sector--, have an important role to play, for three reasons:

1. civil society is touched by the problem; it is not immune to it;
2. civil society can serve as a watchdog; and
3. only collective action by all actors of civil society can ensure real and lasting results.

However, involvement of civil society has so far been low, with some remarkable exceptions. One only needs to remember the effective NGO coordination to deliver aid relief after Hurricane Mitch and the stress on transparency of the process, the ongoing and impressive work of Transparency International, and the remarkable achievements of Poder Ciudadano, a leading anti-corruption NGO in Argentina.

• From a Canadian perspective, corruption is not a major domestic policy concern. Canada scores pretty well in Transparency International Corruption Perception Index. It is perceived to be among the five least corrupt countries in the world. This said, new domestic legislation resulting from the signing of the OECD Convention on Bribing of Foreign Public Officials has not been put to the test.
  

This does not mean Canada doesn’t have problems of transparency or corruption. The handling of government grants for job creation programs, and regulation of junior mining companies have been issues of recent focus.

• Ratification of the Inter-American Convention before the General Assembly we believe would be extremely important. Should ratification before June not be possible, we would promote ratification before the Summit.
  
• We see the topic of corporate social responsibility making its way into Canadian foreign policy. Canada says it is working with the private sector to develop corporate codes of conduct that will make sense to them. At the moment, it is all very preliminary. We are not sure exactly where it is going, but we applaud it.
  
  There is an emerging movement of Canadian NGOs to address corporate social responsibility. The Conference Board of Canada, the Canadian Centre for Philantropy and the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Corporate Policy are some of the organizations concerned with the issue. This movement should be fostered and nourished.

  At the moment, corporate social responsibility has a domestic focus. FOCAL’s role will be to show how the benefits could be felt across the region and the possibility of Canadian leadership.

  We welcome suggestions from all of you on how FOCAL could further contribute to efforts of the inter-American community to fight corruption.