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Last Updated: Jan 18, 2012 - 1:57:33 PM |
 The
Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José
Miguel Insulza, today highlighted the successes and challenges of
the countries of the continent in the fight against corruption, and
remarked the relevant role of Parliaments in addressing this issue,
during the inaugural session of the International Seminar on Probity
and Transparency in the National Congress and the Political Parties
System, held January 12 and 13 in the National Congress of Chile.
“We have gone in a few decades from identifying corruption
with bribery, to expanding the concept in a substantive way. That
is, we now debate issues such as the passive behavior of
enterprises, the financing of politics, undue influence, corporate
responsibility, and what has been called “gray areas,” that is:
excessive hospitality, charitable contributions, gifts, and access
to obtaining certain benefits from academic institutions,” said the
leader of the hemispheric organization.
In his remarks,
Secretary General Insulza acknowledged that, while there has been
much progress on this matter, the International community lacks “a
harmonization” of existing norms. “If the definition of corruption
has been much expanded, as has the definition of transparency, we do
not have an adequate harmonization of the many international norms
that are being elaborated on this matter,” he noted.
Among
the international norms, the head of the OAS recalled that the
Inter-American Convention against Corruption, signed in 1996,
represents the first international treaty on this matter. “The first
international norms are in the Convention and that is for us a
matter of great pride,” he said. “The Convention is one of the most
ratified documents in all of the inter-American system and is the
first that transforms the fight against corruption into a process,
into a strategy with shared responsibilities between the States, the
private sector, civil society, and the international
community.”
In this sense, he mentioned the Follow-up
Mechanism to the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention
against Corruption (MESICIC) which, with the technical support of
the OAS, makes it possible for countries to present reports on
corruption, ask questions and for civil society to participate and
present criticism, questions and objections. “The workings of the
MESICIC should be a growing example since the Mechanism has been
consolidated and with this we have moved to a greater phase,” said
the Secretary General, and continued by recalling that “the
follow-up work allows for cooperation between countries,
transparency of information between them, and even to have a
cooperation program so the countries may improve their
situation.”
Referring specifically to the central subject of
the Seminar, the Organization’s highest representative recalled that
“in all activities we are conducting we have wished to highlight the
fundamental role of the legislative powers in the implementation of
our Convention. Our Committee of Experts has clearly stated that the
legislative powers must adopt legal norms that complement the
countries’ legal frameworks to make them applicable and increasingly
more appropriate to the parliaments of each country,” he
insisted.
The International Seminar on Probity and
Transparency in the National Congress and in the Political Parties
System has as its general objective to provide a place for analysis
of the principles of probity and transparency that are applied to
parliamentarians, as well as to the system that regulates political
parties, from the National Congress itself.
For more information, please visit the OAS Website at
www.oas.org.
© Copyright 2012 by thebahamasweekly.com
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