The fourth day of the 13th session of the Implementation Review Group and the 13th session of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the Prevention of Corruption took place under the chairmanship of Minister Hassan AbdelShafi Ahmed, Chairman of the Administrative Control Authority, and the President of the ninth session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (COSP9).
The meetings included two panel discussions on the 5th item of the agenda of the Implementation Review Group titled “Technical Assistance”; and the 2nd agenda item of the Working Group on the Prevention of Corruption titled: "Implementation of COSP9 relevant resolutions", with two reports submitted by the Secretariat on the implementation of the resolutions.
The first panel discussion in the morning session focused on lessons learned in setting up frameworks for the protection of reporting persons and reporting systems. Panelists, including the Head of the Public Administration Ethics Integrity and Disciplinary Technical Assistance Unit (PA-EID-TAU) in South Africa; Legal officer at the European Commission; Coordinator and Secretary of the Civil Service in Mexico; The Head of the Contracts, Procurement, Compliance Division at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) of Switzerland, reviewed their experience in whistle-blower reporting and protection system during the discussion.
The evening session included the second panel discussion on the tools and resources for identifying and mitigating potential corruption risks, which encompassed questions and discussions from the States parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) to the representatives of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who yesterday reviewed their countries' best practices and successes in awareness-raising, education, training and research to prevent corruption. Egypt also expounded on pathways to replicate its experience in this regard.
The meeting further addressed Egypt's practices in following up on efforts to prevent and combat corruption, including the launch of its annual national Corruption Perceptions Index, along with another annual index for all Egyptian governorates and universities to gauge citizens' opinion regarding the state's efforts to combat corruption and evaluate the impact of these efforts.
These meetings take place in the light of the Conference of the States Parties (COSP9) emphasis on meeting States’ technical needs that have emerged through the Implementation Review Mechanism. Assistance shall be provided by mobilizing financial assistance and technical support and other resources, as per COSP9’s resolution 8/8, which encouraged States parties to promote national anti-corruption strategies and action plans to advance and implement integrated and coordinated home-gown and country-based technical assistance programming and delivery. Moreover, the discussion comes in line with the Conference’s resolution 4/9, which highlighted the importance of promoting, facilitating, and supporting timely, sustainable, adequate, and effective technical assistance in order to bolster national capacities to prevent and combat corruption, and to propel forward action by all technical assistance providers.
The fourth day also witnessed the meeting of the Bureau of the Ninth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The meeting, chaired by Minister Hassan AbdelShafi Ahmed, and attended by members of the bureau and subsidiary bodies, discussed workplans for the Working Groups in between the Conference’s sessions, alongside the workplans for organizing panel discussions during the Working Groups meetings and following up on the political declaration adopted by the General Assembly at its special session against corruption, which is set to be discussed during the next meeting in September 2022.