The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American States (OAS) today signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (CICC for its acronym in Spanish) adopted in 1996 and ratified by 33 countries of the region.
The purpose of the CICC is to promote and strengthen the necessary mechanisms to prevent, detect, sanction and eradicate corruption in the OAS member countries. The Convention seeks to facilitate cooperation among countries in their efforts to fight corruption in the exercise of public functions.
“Corruption takes opportunities away from the Majority in our region, diminishes the competitiveness of our countries and paralyses their economic and social development,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “The IDB is determined to work with each country of Latin American and the Caribbean on the strengthening of their mechanisms to fight corruption.”
The IDB and OAS today agreed to establish a legal framework to facilitate their joint efforts in the implementation of the CICC and in the development of the recommendations included in the Follow-up of the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption Mechanism (MESICIC, for its acronym in Spanish).
The MESICIC analyzes the degree of implementation of the CICC in each country and issues reports with concrete recommendations of the legal and institutional measures that the country has to implement in order to observe the mandate of the Convention. The MESICIC also facilitates technical cooperation activities as well exchange of information, experiences and good practices.
“Corruption is one of the most serious threats to democratic governance,” said the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza. “At the Organization of American States we believe there is a lot we can do jointly and that many ways in which we can help each other to address this issue.”
Supporting efforts to promote integrity and fight corruption in the region has always been a key objective of the Bank. The IDB Group has contributed to the promotion of the CICC and with adjusting the penal code in various countries. It also contributed with the establishment of the MESICIC. The agreement signed today constituted the next logical step: Supporting the concrete recommendations of the implementation of the Convention.
The IDB also supports the promotion and implementation of the United Nations Anticorruption Convention and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Convention to Combat Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions in the region.
“Our aim is that countries in the region can meet their commitments under the different conventions and that they carry out their implementation in an effective and harmonious way given the institutional challenges that applying these treaties entail,” added Moreno.
As part of the region’s new integrity initiatives, tomorrow the IDB will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Norway for the creation of a special fund that promotes access to information in order to prevent corruption.