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OAS ANTI-CORRUPTION MECHANISM ADOPTS ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA REPORT
At its Twenty Fifth Meeting, held March 16 – 20, 2015,
the Committee of Experts of the Follow-up Mechanism for
the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention
against Corruption (MESICIC) adopted its first report on
Antigua and Barbuda.
Bearing in mind that Antigua and Barbuda was not party
to the MESICIC when the First Round of MESICIC was
conducted, the country report is a comprehensive review
of its implementation of the provisions of the
Inter-American Convention against Corruption that the
Committee of Experts of the MESICIC selected for review
in the First Round and the Fourth Round.
The provisions selected for review in the First Round
are those provided for in Article III, paragraph 1
(Standards of conduct: conflicts of interest,
conservation of public resources, obligation to report);
Article III, paragraph 2 (Mechanisms to enforce the
standards of conduct); Article III, paragraph 4 (Systems
for registering income, assets and liabilities); Article
III, paragraph 9 (Oversight bodies); Article III,
paragraph 11 (Participation by civil society); Article
XIV (Assistance and Cooperation), and Article XVIII
(Central Authorities).
Article III, paragraph 9 was selected for the Fourth
Round, which concerns the “oversight
bodies with a view to implementing modern mechanisms for
preventing, detecting, punishing and eradicating corrupt
acts.”
The review was carried out taking into account the
response received from Antigua and Barbuda to the
questionnaire, the information compiled by the Technical
Secretariat, and a new and important source of
information, namely the on-site visit conducted between
October 7 and 9, 2014 by the preliminary review subgroup
for Antigua and Barbuda, composed of the Bahamas and
Chile, with the support of the MESICIC Technical
Secretariat.
During that visit, the information furnished by
Antigua and Barbuda was clarified and expanded and the
opinions of civil society organizations were heard.
FIRST ROUND
With respect to the review of standards of conduct and
mechanisms to enforce them, the recommendations made to
Antigua and Barbuda included the following:
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Regulate the Integrity in Public Life Act 2004 and the
Prevention of Corruption Act 2004, in order to create
and implement mechanisms and guidelines that make it
possible to determine, in concrete cases, whether a
person who performs public functions is in a situation
of conflict of interests, and, at the same time, adopt
measures necessary to protect public interests, such as
dissociation from the exercise of their functions,
withdrawal from official involvement in the matter,
relinquishment of the private interests in conflict, or
nullity of any decisions adopted by a person in such a
position;
Regarding the review of the systems for registering
income, assets and liabilities, the recommendations made
included the following:
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Consider establishing administrative sanctions for those
who fail to comply with the obligation to file a
declaration of income, assets and liabilities; or those
who report incomplete, inaccurate or false information;
as well as for those who fail to provide the Integrity
Commission with further information within a specified
period, when so requested; these sanctions might include
the withholding of salary and, for those who have left
public service, fines and the disqualification from any
public office until such time as the final asset
declaration is filed.
With regard to the mechanisms to encourage participation
by civil society and nongovernmental organizations in
efforts to prevent corruption, the recommendations
included the following:
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Ensure that the public authorities that have not yet
done so comply with Section 9 of the Freedom of
Information Act 2004 and appoint their respective
information officers;
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Strengthen the Office of the Commissioner of
Information, by ensuring that it has the human,
financial and technological resources needed to properly
perform its functions, taking the availability of
resources into account; and
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Compile and disseminate a clear and simple guide
containing practical information to facilitate the
effective exercise of rights pursuant to the Freedom of
Information Act 2004, as required by Section 8(1) of the
Act.
As for mutual assistance, mutual technical cooperation
and central authorities, the following was recommended:
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Design and implement a comprehensive training and
dissemination program for the competent authorities and
officials, so that they are made aware of and are able
to apply the provisions contained in the Convention and
in other treaties that Antigua and Barbuda has signed
that concern mutual assistance in the investigation or
prosecution of acts of corruption.
Based on the review and contributions made throughout
the report, the following were among the general
recommendations also offered:
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Design and implement, where appropriate, training
programs for public servants responsible for application
of the systems, standards, measures, and mechanisms
included in this report, in order to ensure that they
are thoroughly understood and properly handled and
applied; and
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Select and develop procedures and indicators, as
appropriate, for verifying follow-up of the
recommendations contained in this Report, and notify the
Committee accordingly through the Technical Secretariat.
FOURTH ROUND
The oversight bodies of Antigua and Barbuda reviewed in
this report are: The Integrity Commission; the Public
Service Commission (PSC); the Office of the Attorney
General; the Office of the Director of Public
Prosecutions (DPP) and; the Office of the Director of
Audit (ODA).
Some of the recommendations formulated to Antigua and
Barbuda for its consideration in connection with the
aforementioned bodies are, among others, the following:
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Provide the Integrity Commission, the Office of the
Attorney General, the Office of the DPP and the Office
of the Director of Audit, with the appropriate
infrastructure, budgetary and human resources needed for
the proper performance of their function, within
available resources.
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As regards the Integrity Commission, consider providing
it with the authority to impose administrative sanctions
for breaches of the Integrity in Public Life Act 2004,
subject to the Constitution and the fundamental
principles of its legal system and maintain results on
those sanctions that allow for a comprehensive
evaluation of their effectiveness.
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Regarding the PSC, modify the Public Service Commission
Regulations so that a public officer who is acquitted of
a criminal charge in any Court is not precluded from
having disciplinary proceedings instituted against him
or her in respect of an alleged act of misconduct
implicit in that criminal charge, in accordance with the
fundamental principles of the legal system of Antigua
and Barbuda.
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With respect to the Office of the Attorney General, take
the necessary steps to establish the Anti-Corruption
Unit and to review the existing legal anti-corruption
framework to ensure that the Unit works in coordination
with the existing oversight bodies, such as the Office
of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Integrity
Commission.
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Concerning the Office of the DPP, adopt the measures
necessary to preserve its autonomy; adopt coordination
measures with other bodies; ensure a greater budgetary
independence of the DPP; assign a sufficient number of
prosecutors and support staff to it and ensure that
prosecutors receive periodic training on how to
prosecute corrupt acts.
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Regarding the ODA, consider providing it with the legal
obligation to report an irregularity, such as fraudulent
activity, to appropriate authorities; and take the
necessary steps to ensure that the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) meets on a periodic basis and consider
reviewing the Parliamentary Standing Orders and the PAC
Regulations in order to ensure that ODA’s reports
presented to Parliament are addressed promptly so as to
permit swift corrective actions.
During this Twenty Fifth Meeting, similar reports were
adopted for Venezuela, The Bahamas, the United States of
America, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. The Antigua and
Barbuda report adopted by the Committee, as well as the
aforementioned countries, are available
here.
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Edition N° 229 - 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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