The Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries (ACIAC) regional project continued its collaboration with UNDP Tunisia to support inclusive consultations among key stakeholders in the country on three anti-corruption bills that were developed by an intergovernmental committee in June 2014 with the support of the regional project.
The bills cover “illicit enrichment”, “asset declaration” and the “protection of whistleblowers against corruption in the public sector” and are designed to be in line with the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and compatible with the Tunisian context.
After having completed consultations earlier this year on the whistleblowers protection bill, ACIAC collaborated with UNDP Tunisia to organize a national consultation workshop on the 28th and 29th of July in collaboration with the Government and the National Anti-Corruption Authority.
The workshop focused on the other two bills and enabled more than 80 participants from the public sector, civil society and academia to review the proposed legal texts and provide their comments and recommendations in the framework of an interactive discussion on national particularities and related international standards and comparative experiences.
Over the following two days, the ACIAC regional project supported the intergovernmental committee to examine the findings of the consultations that were conducted in 2014 and 2015, including those that were done within the Government and in the form of multi-stakeholder workshops.
As a result, the committee was able to integrate a number of recommendations to the three bills and agree on the next steps including their finalization and the embarkation on the development of additional bills namely on conflict of interest.
On the occasion, Mr. Tarek Bahri, Director General on Governance at the Office of the Chief of Government expressed strong appreciation for the technical support provided by the ACIAC regional project. He announced readiness to proceed with the submission of the three bills to Parliament, while also highlighting the importance of accelerating the pace of anti-corruption legislative reform in Tunisia in an inclusive and effective manner.