Members of the National Assembly will during a plenary sitting of the ongoing November 2011 ordinary session, examine and adopt the bill to authorise the President of the Republic to ratify the African Union Convention on preventing and combating corruption. The Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Amadou Ali defended the bill in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Saturday, November 12.
The convention adopted in Maputo, Mozambique on July 11, 2003, entered into force on August 5, 2005. Government in the explanatory statement of the bill specifies that it seeks to promote and strengthen the development of mechanisms required to combat corruption and related offences in the public and private sectors; facilitate cooperation among State parties to ensure the effectiveness of measures and actions against corruption; and finally to establish the necessary conditions to foster transparency and accountability in the management of public affairs.
Sectors covered by the convention, are acts of corruption among persons, influence peddling, illicit enrichment, diversion of property by public officials, money laundering and illegal receipt of property. The convention that is comprised of 28 articles, “highlights the requirement for public officials to declare their assets, as well as the need to restrict immunities granted to public officials, the need to give the media access to information and the protection of informants and witnesses in cases of corruption and related offences,” government explains. Article 6 of the convention makes provisions for the confiscation and seizure of proceeds and instrumentalities of corruption”. It further specifies that State parties undertake to adopt all necessary legislative measures to reinforce control measures and strengthen national anti-corruption agencies and accountability systems.
The bill on the convention is timely as the Head of State, Paul Biya during his ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) in September 2011 in Yaounde, campaign messages and inaugural speech at the National Assembly after taking the oath of office on November 3, 2011, expressed government’s resolve to eradicate the corruption scourge. The African Union convention to a large extent reflects Cameroon’s laws and regulations, particularly Article 6 of the Constitution, the law relating to the funding of political parties and the decree to establish the National Anti-corruption Commission (NACC).
