REGIONAL MEETING ON PRIVATE SECTOR RESPONSIBILITY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION CULMINATES TO A SUCCESFUL END

With a set of guidelines for future action, the “Regional Meeting on Private Sector Responsibility in the Fight against Corruption” culminated successfully last week in Bogota, Colombia. This meeting was organized by the Government of Colombia in the framework of the Follow-Up Mechanism on Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption – MESICIC, with the support and under the auspices of the OAS General Secretariat, through the Department of Legal Cooperation, which serves as the Technical Secretariat of the MESICIC, as well as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – OECD,  the United Nations Development Program – UNDP, the European Union Program for the Promotion of Social Cohesion in Latin-American – EUROsociAL II, and the Inter-American Development Bank – BID. 

The event, held in Bogota on March 7 and 8, 2013, counted on significant participation by governmental experts from countries of different regions of the Americas, who heard presentations by international panelists and guest speakers on the issues of liability of legal persons, the protection of whistleblowers of acts of corruption, pro-ethics listings and registrations and international standards and instruments of corporate ethics. These presentations were followed by roundtable discussions among the participants. The event program is available here.

This first regional meeting on private sector responsibility was an initiative of the Government of Colombia in efforts to promote joint strategic actions that involve a better implementation of the OAS, the United Nations and the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Conventions, and to develop public policies and private sector partnerships in establishing specific commitments in this sector in the fight against corruption.

Responsibility of the private sector in the prevention and fight against corruption is a topic of collective interest selected by the States, which reflects the purposes of the Inter-American Convention and the MESICIC in promoting and facilitating cooperation to prevent, detect, punish and eradicate corruption. For more information on the MESICIC and the consideration of the topics of collective interest, visit the Anticorruption Portal of the Americas