A team of senior officials from Bangladesh, the United States of America and the United Nations Commission Against Corruption (UNCAC) were in the country since Monday to review Fiji’s compliance with its obligations under UNCAC.
Attorney General, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji ratified UNCAC in May 2007 and volunteered to undergo a peer review process whereby two state parties were selected to review Fiji’s compliance with the provisions of UNCAC.
“The UNCAC delegation has held various meetings this week with various government departments, NGO’s and representatives from civil society,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“The six-member delegation met with various heads of department and staff including the Chief Justice Anthony Gates, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Langman the deputy commissioner of FICAC, the Commissioner of Police Brigadier General Iowane Naivalurua, the commissioner of the Independent Legal Service Commission, the Solicitor General, former High Court judge, Nazhat Shameem, Caroline Pickering of the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Deputy Auditor General, the Transparency International and Parmesh Chand.”
He said the UNCAC delegation would submit its draft report on Fiji in due course.
“They’ll go back now and write up a report on their findings on Fiji and then submit it to Fiji for comments on it and then a final report is drafted; finally put into print and then we obviously share it with the various stakeholders,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
The Attorney General also announced that for the first time Fiji had been selected to review another country.
Later, this year Fiji will be reviewing Timor Leste.
“What it means is that we’ve also built internal capacities. Before we can actually go and review another country’s compliance with UNCAC, certain personnel from Fiji will be sent for a training program as to how they can review,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“As part of this process of the peer review program last year and this year, some people in Fiji now know how to respond, who fill out reports and who also become experts in the area of laws pertaining to corruption, abuse of office and the various international obligations that do exist and how we can co-operate with other countries.
“Systemic corruption is not necessarily confined to your own borders. You can have corruption that’s instigated of briberies, instigated by foreign companies or by foreign nationals. It also does touch on the area of extradition. They are the sorts of areas that we want to develop local expertise in.”
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said this review program was proof of Government’s effort to eradicate systematic corruption in the country.
“What this review program also shows is that the Bainimarama Government is participating in this program to tell the international community that we are engaged not just in lip service but also in the practical input or application of good governance through the eradication of systemic corruption,” the Attorney-General said.
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