Paraguay joins the growing number of countries that have provided their consent to receive on-site visits as part of the review process of the Fifth Round of Review of the Mechanism for Follow-up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC).

This consent was formally provided by the Permanent Mission of Paraguay to the OAS, in a communication sent to the Department of Legal Cooperation of the Secretariat of Legal Affairs of the OAS, in its capacity as the MESICIC Technical Secretariat, in accordance with the Methodology for Conducting On-site Visits.

This will be the second time Paraguay receives an on-site visit from the MESICIC. In this respect, the first visit took place successfully on April 16 – 19, 2012, during the Fourth Round of Review of this Mechanism. The results of this visit formed part of the Paraguay country report adopted by the MESICIC Committee of Experts in September of that same year.

The Fifth Round of the MESICIC will review, among others, the progress made by the States Parties to address the recommendations formulated in their country reports of the Second Round with respect to systems of government hiring, procurement of goods and services, and protecting those who, in good faith, report acts of corruption. Implementation of other provisions of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption will also be reviewed.

To date, in addition to Paraguay, the following countries have formally expressed their consent to receive on-site visits for the Fifth Round: Guatemala, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Uruguay, Chile, Guyana, United States, Mexico, Antigua and Barbuda, and Peru. The MESICIC Technical Secretariat expects to receive similar notifications from other States, which have reported that they are taking the necessary steps domestically to formalize their consent.

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.

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