Online version of this Newsletter:
http://www.oas.org/juridico/newsletter/nl_en.htm
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OAS ANTI-CORRUPTION MECHANISM ADOPTS REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES
On March 20, 2015, at its
Twenty-Fifth Meeting, the Committee of Experts of the
OAS Anticorruption Mechanism (MESICIC) adopted a report
on the implementation in the This report provides a comprehensive
review of the structure, operation and results achieved
by the Disclosure Unit of the Office of the Special
Counsel (OSC), the Council of the Inspectors General on
Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), the Public Integrity
Section (PIN) of the Department of Justice, and the
Office of Government Ethics (OGE), four of the oversight
bodies responsible for preventing, detecting and
punishing corruption in the United States. This review was performed taking into
account the information provided by the country under
review, and the information gathered during the on-site
site visit held in Washington D.C. in October, 2014 by
representatives of Argentina, Belize and the MESICIC
Technical Secretariat, where meetings were held with
representatives of the aforementioned government bodies,
and with representatives of civil society, the private
sector and professional associations in the United
States. In addition to the review, this
report contains a set of recommendations to be
considered by
With regard to the Disclosure Unit of the OSC, consider
defining the phrase “substantial likelihood” used in 5
U.S.C., § 1214; examine the need to provide the
Disclosure Unit with additional authority to resolve
disclosures that it receives; and make greater use of
the authority granted to the OSC by 5 U.S.C. §
1213(g)(1) in order for the Disclosure Unit to receive
disclosures from those who are neither employees, former
employees, nor applicants for employment
meeting the conditions of 5 U.S.C. §
1213(c)(2)(A) or (B), as well as from contractors.
With regard to the CIGIE, consider defining or providing
more guidance on the term “general supervision” as used
in the Inspector General Act of 1978; take steps to
ensure prompt action in appointments to vacant IG
positions; and consider clarifying when and it what
instances attorney-client privilege or other Federal
laws may be used to refuse to provide an Inspector
General with requested information.
With regard to the PIN, ensure that there is adequate
coordination between the PIN and the United States
Attorneys Offices, and consider maintaining statistics
on the results of investigations and prosecutions broken
down in such a way so as to identify the types of
criminal conduct or offenses that led to prosecutions
and convictions
With regard to the OGE, consider steps to ensure that
ethics officials receive adequate training to promote
uniform application of ethics principles in the agencies
of the executive branch; promote periodic meetings
between Designated Agency Ethics Officials and Alternate
Designated Agency Ethics Officials; review OGE
regulations to identify any rules that could be made
more effective; and consider making any necessary
changes to the Ethics in Government Act in order to
ensure its continued effectiveness. The second part of the report
contains the follow-up on the recommendations formulated
to the
The United States also provided information, for
inclusion in the report, on four best practices,
referring, in summary to the MOU between OSC and the
National Science Foundation; the promotion of
“Suspension and Debarment” by the CIGIE; the indictment
review procedure used by the Public Integrity Section,
and the assistance provided to the President and the
Senate by OGE as part of the Presidential appointment
process. Together with the report on the
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Edition N° 226 - March 2015
The Mechanism For Follow-up on the
Implementation of the Inter-American
Convention against Corruption, known as MESICIC for its Spanish acronym, is a tool to
support the development of the Inter-American
Convention against Corruption through
cooperation between States Parties.
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