Organization of American States, Report of the Committee of Experts of the Mechanism for Follow-up of Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption: Report on its Implementation in Colombia (Washington, DC, 2004), www.oas.org/juridico/ english/mec_rep_col.pdf Eduardo Wills, ‘La relación entre la corrupción y el proceso de descentralización en Colombia’ (The relation between corruption and the process of decentralisation in Colombia) in Evaluación de la descentralización municipal en Colombia: Balance de una década (Evaluation of a decade of municipal decentralisation in Colombia) (Bogotá: Departamento Nacional de Planeación, 2002) World Bank and Colombian vice-presidency, Estudio sobre corrupción, desempeño institucional y gobernabilidad: desarrollando una estrategia anti-corrupción para Colombia (Study of corruption, institutional performance and governance: developing an anti-corruption strategy for Colombia) (Bogotá, 2002) Transparencia por Colombia: www.transparenciacolombia.org.co Notes 1. The president nominates a shortlist of three candidates for the post of chief public prosecutor and the supreme court makes the final selection. 2. Revista Semana (Colombia), 19 April 2004. 3. Revista Semana (Colombia), 18 October 2003.
Democratic Republic of the Congo Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 score: 2.0 (133rd out of 146 countries) Conventions: AU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Corruption (signed December 2003; not yet ratified) UN Convention against Corruption (not yet signed) UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (not yet signed) Legal and institutional changes • In June 2004 the national assembly, followed by the senate, passed a law determining the organisation, powers and functioning of the Commission for Ethics and the Fight against Corruption (CELC). The purpose of the commission is to: make people more aware of ethical questions and the fight against corruption; influence political, public and religious authorities; increase the capacity of national institutions to promote integrity; and ensure the operating capacity of all national institutions involved in the fight against corruption. Although it is chaired by a representative of civil society with the rank and powers of a minister, the CELC is in practice controlled by the government, which may limit its ability to take effective action against public corruption. It is also important that the CELC’s existence be confirmed in the forthcoming constitution. • In May 2004 parliament began examining a bill to amend the criminal code. The bill is concerned with the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism,
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