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Topic Discussion IV
Achieving Good Governance
Controlling Corruption, Improving
Administration
and Strengthening the Rule of Law
Room 5
(18 of 18 pages)
Speaker: I would like only to refer specifically to the aspect that has
been tackled by my colleague from Guatemala when she spoke about international ethic codes and she mentioned also
my country because we need to fight against corruption. We cannot fight against corruption in general. We need
to do it on the international level. We have the case of Guatemala who we have the president who has a coup and
he can flee the country. He can go to another country and there are cases of theft and everything and nobody can
control it so it is very important also to know that because you have millions of dollars that are deposited in
Swiss banks and you cannot even return them. We can face the same situation also. It is continued and will continue
if we don't find judges to take back all the money that has been stolen.
I would like to indicate also that in our countries, we have the big weight off all the capitalistic countries
and also the other enterprises that is a lot of money spent and a lot of capital. It should be supervised and it
should not serve the governments to steal more so there should be more control and I thank you for your attention.
Speaker: Thank you, Chairperson. First I agree with my person, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. They only
talked about part of the truth, not all of the truth. The main problems in my opinion, the obstacles to eliminate
control of corruption is the lack of separation of power. We have very weak parliament and very weak judiciary.
That is the problem. An example of the parliament, our parliament apparently has all the power to supervise the
work of the administration and actually we have in our constitution that the parliament has the right to instruct
the government. This is not existent in any other country. But in practice they cannot even get a minister [inaudible].
Also there are laws that can come in by the president like the liberation of the Ministry of Information which
is even over the constitution but the most important thing is the lack of independence judiciary. This is a problem.
They are dependent on the power. An example is that how can this affect, when our government decides to make public
fund prosecutors to get the public money who announce that [inaudible] against people who will fight corruption.
A good example is when they wrote about corruption. $10,000,000 has been given to the country in the last 10 years.
Where did it go? They haven't prosecuted. Why don't we have some kind of government body. Their work is to fight
corruption. Like Hong Kong and Guatemala. This is something that I would like to be added. There are so many things
I want to say.
Madam Speaker: Thank you very much. I am very appreciative of everyone's willingness to accept these time
constraints which are very severe. We are out of time and the buses are going to leave soon and I do have to bring
this to a close.
I would like to make two last comments. I may have missed it but I don't think I heard anyone talk about the role
of democratization in our education system or the role of education in promoting and strengthening democracy. Someone
did comment on that, I guess I missed it but I think it is very important that we think about how basic primary
and secondary education systems can be structured and designed in such a way as to promote the ideals and goals
that we have been discussing here today.
I was hoping that I would be able to summarize the discussion. That is obviously impossible. I think it has been
a very rich discussion but it occurs to me that there is a tool available to all of us because of all of our countries
are in a state of democratic transition. There is a tool available to all of us and that is information technology
and governance is such a big idea. There is so much there that I wonder if it might be useful to think about the
idea of creating a Web site on governance. I think NDI is thinking about it. I think NDI would welcome any reactions
you might have and any suggestions you might have and any offers of assistance you might be able to give.
I think that all of us, even those of us from the technologically challenged generation, as we are learning to
use the information technology, this might be a way of continuing to share experiences and best practices so if
you would be so kind, if you have a reaction, good idea or bad idea, they can give them to Matt and again thank
you very much for your patience, understanding and your wonderful presentation.
I don't know about you but I have been working on democratization for about 25 years and it is just extraordinary
to have all these countries represented here today and members of government, members of the judiciary, members
of civil society, men and women. It has just been, at the risk of sounding trite it has been a thrilling experience
for me and I have learned a lot. I hope all of us had and we will be able to continue this process through perhaps
some ongoing. Under Secretary Loy talked about perhaps moving towards creating a community of democracies which
is an idea we would very much like to have your reaction to. Thank you very much and we will see you in a few minutes
at wherever.
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