Bhutan

Accountability and transparency in focus on Regional Workshop on Anti-Corruption

Accountability and transparency underlie both the content and the way we do business in UNDP. The Third Asia-Pacific INTACT (Integrity in Action) Community of Practice Meeting on Anti-Corruption Workshop (Bangkok, 1-3 February 2010), organized jointly by the Regional Center in Bangkok and the Democratic Governance Group (BDP) focused  on knowledge sharing on UNCAC (United Nations Convention against Corruption) implementation and in applying the international principles of the convention in strengthening internal integrity of UNDP.

Going beyond the minimum requirements for UNCAC implementation
Approximately 60 participants attended the three day meeting with representatives from 15 countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam), including UNDP governance focal points and national counter-parts (from anti-corruption agencies, ministries of foreign affairs, parliament, NGOs and the media). UNODC also attended the meeting, with representation from Vienna HQ and its two regional offices (Bangkok and Delhi).

The Regional Community of Practice agreed that the new self-assessment tool is very comprehensive in nature and would facilitate the collection of anti corruption information at the country-level. At the same time, the COP learned from the participatory UNCAC Gap Analysis experiences in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Kenya, which led to national policy reforms, and so the COP argued that greater stakeholder involvement is necessary in the elaboration of the self-assessment checklists, to enable the tool to become useful both for international reporting purposes and for national policy reform. UNDP RCB is currently reviewing a guidance note on how to conduct these national processes, which will facilitate both the reporting obligations under the new UNCAC Review Mechanism and enhance participation and transparency in the process. The Guidance Note will be finalized by the Regional Consortium (UNDP/UNODC Bangkok, BIG and IGS) in close consultation with UNDP New York as well as UNODC Vienna in the coming weeks.

In terms of country level engagement, a Regional Consortium will facilitate national stakeholder workshops on UNCAC and national processes to establish the capacity gaps in implementing UNCAC, using the self-assessment tool, in a number of countries, notably Mongolia and Bhutan, and possibly in Laos, Maldives, Nepal and Palau.

Bhutan's participation was timely and very relevant to the country, given the strong political will to tackle corruption. Bhutan will implement activities to initiate the Gap Analysis between the UNCAC and the national ACC Act and other relevant legislation in 2010. A technical core team consisting of members from the different relevant agencies has been established for this task. According to Bhutan's Anti-Corruption Commission Chairperson, Dasho Neten Zangmo, the gap analysis needs to the accompanied with an 'action plan', which would be important to amend the ACC Act and other legislation.

The gap analysis is planned to be completed by July 2010, so that the Bill can be introduced in the 2010 November Parliament session.