OAS to implement convention against corruption
Kim Osbourne
OAS officials and stakeholders within various government ministries today met in Belize City to develop a draft policy to address corruption. The national workshop will assist in preparing a course of action to later implement the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. OAS Representative to Belize, Kim Osbourne, says that signing the agreement simply isn’t enough and that there needs to be concrete application of the policy once it has been officially put in place.
Kim Osbourne, OAS Representative to Belize
“What we are doing here today is presenting the draft action plan for the implementation of the convention in Belize. We have recommendations from the group of experts who have met and said what Belize needs to do to better comply with the provisions within the convention against corruption. And so we have people from different elements of the Belizean society here: international organizations, civil society, the public service, the judiciary and others meeting here today to provide input before we finalize the national action plan to implement the convention against corruption.”
Isani Cayetano
“There was a question that was brought up earlier with regards to the involvement of, for instance, the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Belize Police Department. Can you speak to us a bit on that?”
Kim Osbourne
“Well we invited everyone. We invited all and everybody we thought would contribute or could contribute to the process. We have representation as I said from various entities. I’m not sure whether the Financial Intelligence Unit is represented here but they were invited and so were the others from the public service departments and just all the entities within Belize that could possibly impact that the convention against corruption.”
Isani Cayetano
“Speaking of the involvement of other stakeholders in this particular initiative, can you speak to us on the role that the Attorney General’s ministry is playing in this particular workshop?”
Kim Osbourne
“The attorney, the representative on the group of experts comes from the attorney general’s office. So this is in fact being spearheaded by the attorney general’s office, specifically the solicitor general’s office. And so the OAS works collaboratively with that entity to ensure that we are—the provisions within the convention are consistent with national legislation.”
In 2008 Belize was ranked one hundred and ninth on the corruption perception index and last year the country was not ranked because according to Transparency International there were not enough sources of data available to complete its findings on Belize’s status.
