Thursday, January 18, 2007

Southeast Asian lawmakers form united front vs corruption

01/18/2007
Inquirer (The Philippines)

LEGISLATORS from Southeast Asia have firmed up a united front to fight official corruption in the region to ensure the efficient use of public funds, stimulate investments and put in place an effective legal infrastructure that would provide the antidote to official indiscretion, Sen. Edgardo J. Angara said Wednesday.

Angara said in a press statement that the Southeast Asian Parliamentarians Against Corruption (SEAPAC) was formed to banner the anticorruption effort from the region’s parliaments and congresses on a coordinated and institutional basis. The 26 founding members of the SEAPAC came from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Angara, who is the SEAPAC president, had spearheaded the establishment of the SEAPAC in the wake of his participation in the Ottawa-based Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption or GOPAC.

He said “the development initiatives and all the cooperative measures aimed at fostering economic growth and political stability in the ASEAN region has to be complemented by a strong commitment to combat corruption on a regional scale.”

The 26 founding members of the SEAPAC signed the Manila Declaration in April 2005 calling for the following program of action:

• Endorse the ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption

• Foster closer collaboration among legislators in the region to step up anticorruption work

• Review their respective state of laws, standards, systems and strategies to determine their adequacy and consistency with international commitments against corruption

• Promote the participation of all sectors of society in advancing the Rule of Law and good governance in the conduct of public and private affairs.

Angara said combating corruption is a task so tough that there should be “national and regional strategies” in fighting the scourge.

Angara had sponsored in the Senate a landmark law on government procurement which radically overhauled the rules of bidding and award in the public sector.

The law provides adequate safeguards to protect public money and even incorporates features of modern technology into the law to boost the safeguards.

During the deliberation at the committee level, it was revealed that at least P22 billion in public funds is being wasted yearly due to fraud in public bids and other forms of corruption.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a nice idea if they could
keep themself from being corrupted
like the rest of them.

Anonymous said...

Please put Hun Sen government on line #1 in the list. There are a lot shit corruptions there to clean.

Anonymous said...

They did 100 times already, but
found nothine. Therefore, you
must be dreaming.