In the National Assembly Stepping up the fight against corruption in the region |24 November 2021
Seychelles is expected to be more involved in the fight against corruption at regional level now that the National Assembly has given its unanimous support for the ratification of the Southern African Development Community’s Protocol Against Corruption.
This is in accordance with Article 64(4) of the Constitution of Seychelles.
The Assembly debated the ratification during its deliberations on Monday.
Presenting the motion for the ratification of the Southern African Development Community’s (Sadc) Protocol Against Corruption, the leader of government business Hon. Bernard Georges explained that the protocol is setting up mechanisms which will help each member state of the Sadc to continue the fight against corruption. He said Seychelles was a signatory of the convention and the protocol seeks to help member countries which already have internal laws against corruption and are engaged in the fight against corruption to take part in the regional fight against corruption and this through a series of measures.
“Article 2 of the protocol sets out its intentions and purposes through different mechanisms to prevent, detect, punish and eradicate corruption both in the private and public sectors as well as promote and facilitate cooperation among member states and to harmonise the different policies and domestic legislations of each member state in the fight against corruption,” Hon. Georges explained.
Article 3 defines corruption while Article 4 gives a detailed list of preventive measures that each member state will have to take to ensure that the fight against corruption is effective. These include measures against bribery, proper tax collection mechanism to name but a few.
Article 5 details the extradition process of a guilty person while Article 6 talks about corruption practices among representatives of the different member states and representatives of different organisations based in the different countries of the Sadc.
Article 7 addresses the development and harmonisation of different policies and domestic laws required to implement the different provisions of the protocol.
“Each member state must engage itself to put in place the necessary policies and laws to ensure the effectiveness of the protocol,” he said.
Article 8 addresses issues related to the confiscation of proceeds derived from corruption and the engagement of member states to address the matter. Article 9 deals with matters related to extradition while Article 10 talks about cooperation, legal and judicial assistance among member states which according to Hon. Georges is very important but an area where Seychelles has failed.
“Under this article Seychelles needs to put in place a legal mechanism to allow for mutual assistance in relation to corruption,” Hon. Georges stated.
Other articles of the protocol talk about a national authority to oversee the work of the protocol, relation with other treaties...
“Once we ratify the protocol, we will have to approve a series of regulations to strengthen the protocol and boost its effectiveness,” Hon. Georges stated.
All members who intervened on the ratification motion gave their full support to the initiative and most of them touched on the fact that many of our related laws and regulations will need to be amended. The ratification received the members’ unanimous support.
Marie-Anne Lepathy