POLITICS: CORRUPTION AND THE PACIFIC RESPONSE

Merita Huch

By the end of this year, the remaining 10 Pacific United Nations members should be ratifying the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). This is the expectation of the United Nations as stressed in a recently held seminar towards ratification of the convention. The Pacific region has the lowest ratifying rate on this convention. A total of 10 countries have not signed and the UN Offices in the region is moving in to further push awareness of what the UN describes as a vital agreement when it comes to protecting the Pacific’s integrity and allowing this small region more involvement in international cooperation to fight corruption nationally and internationally.

Senior officials from around the region have been at loggerheads with members of the UN Pacific Centre in finding ways to devise the best framework that will suit the Pacific when the islands do decide to sign this agreement. Only Palau, Fiji and Papua New Guinea from the region have ratified UNCAC. For the Cook Islands, Assistant Ombudsman Janine Daniel is optimistic her country would join soon but it’s a move “we are cautious in implementing”. “We don’t want to sign up and then find out later that we are not ready to implement it,” she says.

Biggest issue

“The biggest issue is the resource implications on our ability to achieve what’s expected of countries committing into this UN agreement”. “We don’t want to be in the same situation we see in Papua New Guinea where ratification’s been made an funding that’s come towards the implementation of UNCAC is questioned. "That’s not what we want, although a lot of the requirements, legislations and support are there already. There is still work to be carried out before we in the Cook Islands can say yes to ratification.” One of the biggest issues raised in this seminar is the interpretation of corruption when it comes to some of the Pacific islands customs. Even Samoa’s Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi noted there should be clear guidelines to determine what corruption is. In opening the seminar, Samoa’s Prime Minister says the commitment shown by the Pacific countries towards its states ratifying such an agreement was endorsed in the Pacific Islands Forum in 2005.

However, there are still so many areas in which each country should review in ensuring that corruption is stopped, he said. These areas include specific traditions which are accepted in the Pacific islands but considered corrupt in the western world. What’s important says the Prime Minister is on the work already implemented by many Pacific islands within their own national frameworks to curb corruption. Like many countries, he says Samoa focuses much on pushing good governance within the public sector. Samoa passed into law the Public Bodies Act in the early 2000 to guide the work carried out by those in government ministries and corporations. Accountability and Transparency continue to play a vital part in ensuring good governance, he says, and these guidelines will lead to many islands accepting the ratification of the UN agreement.

Despite so many legislations which many Pacific islands countries have established, Papua New Guinea is the only country in the region that has an anti-corruption framework already in place. There are laws and regimes set up in other islands but the UN says these are too weak to cater for many aspects of corruption as spelt out in the UN Convention against Corruption. One of the benefits of ratifying the UN Convention against Corruption is the assistance that’s guaranteed from bigger members of the United Nations to finding and apprehending those who may have committed offences within the islands and manage to leave the country.

By ratifying, islands that suspect international criminal within their own boundaries can contact other countries for help and they will help. The provision of funding towards setting up sophisticated technologies towards curbing corruption will also be provided under this Convention. The most important aspect though, says the UN Pacific Office, is to ensure that national and international crimes are deterred as a result of the coordination established amongst UN Member countries once they sign this convention. New Zealand which is at the top of the list on the Least Corrupt government has yet to ratify the same convention.

There is no report card from the UN on which country of the Pacific is the most corrupt. But the Pacific Office says there are several countries on the latest Transparency International Survey on Corruption that indicates much work is needed for these islands to get their act together and join the UN agreement. This seminar hosted in Apia is one of many steps the UN is now taking to ensure all sectors of the communities within the Pacific region understand the implications of such a move once their respective countries sign the convention.

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