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Topic Discussion IV
Achieving Good Governance
Controlling Corruption, Improving
Administration
and Strengthening the Rule of Law
Room 1
(22 of 22 pages)
There was also mention of corruption with regard -- at the lower levels. But those
are more easily dealt with and I think it's easier to catch some small public servant who is taking a bribe to
facilitate the commission of some act which he's entitled to do, rather than those in the higher echelons of government,
whose corruption is more or less disguised and more difficult to prove.
And I don't think we dealt with the question of the administration, improving the administration of countries,
which is a pity, because I think that in developing countries there is a dire need for improving the facilities
of public servants who are in charge of administration. And this, of course, also leads to corruption if it is
not addressed.
Some mention was made of the administration of justice in passing and here, again, I think that for us to really
have good governance it is important that you have an independent judiciary. I think particularly the participants
from Yemen mentioned that in their presentations, that the judicial systems needs to be independent.
But by and large I thought that the discussion centered, maybe quite rightly, more on eradicating corruption than
anything else and if this is so coming out of this session, perhaps some firm recommendations, I think we already
have two made by one of the participants from Yemen on that particular aspect of our topic, which seems to be the
chief concern of everyone present. Thank you.
Chair: Thank you, Madam Chief Justice. You've actually pre-empted the comments that I was going to make
and I would say that it points out that really the magnitude of the problem of corruption in the -- under the general
heading of good governance is so important that it clearly dominated this discussion. It also seems to me that
it is a call for a follow on meeting to complete the discussion and I think you'll have to -- that should be part
of our recommendation to NDI and the many co-sponsors of this forum.
And lastly, it would seem to me that in many of the examples that were shared today that there are, at least on
the books, laws and mechanisms and institutions to deal with corruption and perhaps the recommendation might be
to NDI to become a clearing house to gather those models and to share them amongst the countries represented here
and within the NDI network.
I'm sorry, time is our enemy here. There's one minute left. There wouldn't be justice to have one of the two participants
left to -- unless you in one minute could capture the essence of the presentation you'd like to make. You have
one minute.
Sultan Zam: In the name of God, my name is Sultan Zam (ph) from the Parliament in opposition party. I won't
reiterate what has been said by my colleague, but I want to say that the experience in our country can be characterized
in the following, there is no role for the low, there is no independent judicial system for the different reasons
mentioned. The government in our country does not submit itself to the low or to the regulations or to the constitution,
because the government refuses to adhere to the law. When it comes to the building up of institutions, there is
no such thing in Yemen. Corruption has its own philosophy in this country and there is a saying in our country
that goes to the effect that, say whatever you want and the government does whatever it wants.
The parliament or despite the fact that it should have an important role in monitoring the work of the government,
but it doesn't do so and the top government officials and executives do not adhere to the regulation, nor to the
-- we haven't heard of any government officials that have been taken to court, despite all the logical reasons
to do so and the case is dominated by top government officials, especially when it comes to tenders and to government
procurements. The institutional body is not independent and the recruitment is not done according to qualifications.
Every Minister comes and changes the officials in his Ministry according to his own views. Thank you.
Chair: I thank all of you for a rich discussion to be continued hopefully by NDI. Thank you.
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