VP calls for by-law for relevant anti-corruption facilities

Vice President Abdo Rabo Mansur Hadi called for a bylaw that organizes the activities of anti-corruption bodies into an organized, coherent crime-fighting force.

In his speech at the opening of the Seventh Consultative Meeting of anti-corruption organizations, the vice president said that the meeting should produce definitive conclusions which help these bodies fulfill their mandate of protecting public rights and property.  

The vice president continued by saying that “following our country’s signing of the International Anti-corruption Agreement, and the issue of Law 47 in 2005, we issued the main corruption laws, in Law 29 of 2006, for corruption prevention, accountability and corruption fighting.” Pursuant to this law, the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption (SNACC) was formed in July 2007, as well as Law 30 of the financial disclosure committee in 2006. They are considered important legislative additions because they provided strong penalties as a deterrent to illegal wealth acquisition. “Law 23 was issued in 2007 for public tender and stores, aiming at promoting tender control and for providing transparency in tender activities,” the vice president added.

The vice president called for coordination between the Central Organization for Control and Auditing (COCA) and SNACC,  in order to establish a national anti-corruption strategy for exchanging data and information regarding cases filed before the judiciary. Their results should be referred to the judiciary and public money prosecution, he explained. Other authorities which have a role in corruption fighting include the Parliament, the Cabinet, the President, the Ministry of Finance, control administrations in the Ministry of Interior, local government councils and civil society organizations, who have a role in supervision. 

Hadi continued by saying that in terms of the implementation of the president’s publicly supported electoral program, the reform processes are continuing on all levels, with the judiciary being granted their full independent constitutional functions in order to establish high-quality courts and prosecution offices. The Supreme Judiciary Council is also enjoying a wide mandate to run their affairs and follow up prosecution activities. 

The COCA manager, Dr. Abdulla Abdulla al-Sanfi, gave a speech at the meeting which he described as a positive effort to promote partnership and coordination among relevant anti-corruption systems.

He said that the meeting helped to develop technical cooperation between the meeting parties, which will bolster their role in protecting public property. He drew attention to some important national functions that support corruption fighting, first of which was the president's electoral program. The president’s program placed corruption fighting and public property protection as a top priority, ensuring that several of the issued laws helped to develop a corruption-fighting environment as well as a distinctive performance of the Parliament and the Shura Council.

Ahmed al-Anisi, SNACC’s manager, considered the meeting an effective partnership between public property protection parties, pointing out that it was a step towards an integrated national vision that crushed obstacles to reform, ensuring that the authority's interaction with their partners at local and international levels was stronger than ever. 

The Minister of Justice, Ghazi Shaif al-Aghbari, said that the meeting is not only a consultative one; it is also aimed to coordinate corruption fighting and public property protection efforts. He also added that the judiciary knows the role and tasks entrusted to it for tackling complex corruption cases.  

Al-Aghbari said that public wealth prosecution was established in 1962 to investigate public money cases, and was reestablished in 2001 in order to renew its work.

He added that the corruption law issuance enlarged the penal crimes' incrimination scope, increasing their number from 10 to 70, adding an extra burden on the public wealth prosecutions and courts. This required the reconsideration of the courts and prosecutions' structures, he explained.

The COCA deputy manager reviewed the issues to be discussed at the consultative meeting, and especially  the consultative meeting's program, which will discuss the role of the public wealth courts in protecting public money and the role of SNACC and COCA regarding the systems concerned with public wealth protection, as well as the role of the Ministry of Legal Affairs in providing legal protection for public wealth.

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