After receiving on 8 August 2005 the draft Law on Anti-Corruption dated 30 June 2005, civil society organizations have analyzed and found that, though the current draft has more comprehensive corruption related offence provisions than the earlier draft with a clearer role to the Secretary General to enforce the law, and includes a Chapter on international cooperation, it is necessary that some more improvements be made to the draft to meet international standards as committed by the Royal Government during the CG meeting with international donors in December 2004.

Therefore, we, the Civil Society Organizations against Corruption, would like to make some recommendations and would like to ask that the government carefully review the draft and incorporate into the draft the following important items:

1- Independence of Anti-Corruption Body

The ACL needs to specify a functionally independent Secretary General who manages the day-to-day work of the ACB. The Secretary General reports to the Supreme National Council Against Corruption (SNCAC) that serves as the advisor to the Secretariat General. Because most of the members of the SNCAC will be appointed by the institutions that have political connections, it is necessary to have an independent Secretary General with autonomous power to manage investigations, prevention, and education against corruption.

a- Members of the SNCAC

- Two members of the SNCAC from the National Assembly and from the Senate shall be elected by a 2/3 majority vote

- The Anti-Corruption Body shall be a functionally independent executive authority with autonomous power to manage investigations, prevention, and education activities

- There shall be a representative of the civil society organizations within the SNCAC. The representative shall be elected by the civil society organization, and the election procedure shall be developed in details by the CSOs.

b- Secretary General

- The Secretary General shall be free from the political influence of the Supreme National Council Against Corruption. The Secretary General and Deputies Secretary General shall be selected from the list of candidates that are publicly advertised. The SNCAC shall make a shortlist of six candidates to be submitted to the National Assembly for approval of one Secretary General and two Deputies Secretary General through a 2/3 majority of vote

- The Secretary General shall have the power to appoint and dismiss staff

- Disbursal of funds to the ACB shall be carried out on a yearly basis to enable the ACB to perform its function effectively

- Take out the sentence “[ACB] can receive necessary resources from the Government” stated in the 2nd paragraph of Article 31

2- Investigative Power

Under Article 37 of the current draft law, the Secretary General, Deputies Secretary General, and investigators of the anti-corruption body need to be approved by the Prosecutor General. This requirement would seriously undermine the independence and operational autonomy of the Anti-Corruption Secretariat’s investigation powers

- The law shall accepts the Secretary General, the Deputies Secretary General, and the investigators of all levels as judicial police with no need to be approved by the Prosecutor Genaral

- The ACB shall be given the authority to waiving bank secrecy law in article 39 and Article 73

3- Witness Protection

The LAC shall include some measures to protect informers and witnesses in order to encourage participation in the fight against corruption and to provide safety and security for those people

- Informers shall be given immunity from civil or criminal charges for making the disclosure

- It is a criminal offence and shall be stated in Chapter 8 of this law to commit acts of retaliation against informers whether they planning to provide information , are providing information, or have in the past provided information to the Anti-Corruption Secretariat

- The state shall provide protection for safety and security to witnesses and informers, if necessary

- Require the state to protect an informer’s identity or take measures to ensure an informer’s physical safety, if necessary. Also, if necessary, a witness of this kind shall be allowed to answer to questioning during the court hearing without showing up

4- Asset Declaration

The asset disclosure regime contains more details than the previous draft. However, its function is still unclear.

- The Secretary General shall have the right to open the asset declarations of those suspected of involving in corruption in order to check and to give them to supervisors of the suspects to assess conflict of interests, or give them to the courts as evidence

- A conviction shall be required prior to the State being able to confiscate property that is the result of unjust enrichment

5- Criminal Offence Provisions

A number of offence provisions require revision to fit the intent expressed in the United Nations Convention against Corruption

- The provisions on unjust enrichment, favouritism, illegal bidding, illegal benefiting, and private corruption, shall be re-examined based on comments made by the International Technical Advisors

6- Civil Society Participation

In order to successfully combat corruption, the Supreme National Council Against Corruption shall have a civil society representation

The Anti-Corruption General Secretariat shall establish advisory councils for all of its departments. The Advisory Councils shall have the representation of civil society

7- International Cooperation

The Ministry’s drafting committee shall consider including an International Cooperation Department in the General Secretariat of the SNCAC, which would be useful especially in cases of asset recovery and coordination efforts at the judicial cooperation, extradition, and mutual assistance

- The extradition provisions should be revised in accordance with the UN Model Extradition Law

- The Secretary General shall be allowed to liaise with international law enforcement agencies for the purposes of information sharing on international anti-corruption investifgation

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