Al Attiyah Attends 1st Meet of Chiefs of GCC of Anti-Corruption & Transparency Integrity Bodies

Riyadh, March 16 (QNA) - HE Chairman of Qatar's Administrative Control and Transparency Authority (ACTA)Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah represented Qatar to the first meeting of agencies responsible for anti-corruption and integrity protction in the GCC member states which started here on Saturday. Speaking to the opening session , HE Al Attiyah conveyed thanks and appreciation to brethren in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for inviting him to attend such a meeting which he hopes would aim to further enhance and boost regional , arab and international cooperation in field of anti-corruption and integrity protection. " From this platform, I convey deep thanks and high appreciation to HH the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani for encouraging us to establish the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority (ACTA) and his approval to issue its statute and his constant support to the ACTA to steer its functions effectively and efficiently", said HE Al Attiyah. Elaborating Chairman of ACTA made it clear that the increasing danger of corruption at the local and international levels has pushed the UN to set up the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)in 2003. It is noted that the (UNCAC) is a multilateral convention negotiated by members of the United Nations. It is the first global legally binding international anti-corruption instrument. In its 71 Articles divided into 8 Chapters, UNCAC requires that States Parties implement several anti-corruption measures which may affect their laws, institutions and practices. These measures aim at preventing corruption, criminalizing certain conducts, strengthening international law enforcement and judicial cooperation, providing effective legal mechanisms for asset recovery, technical assistance and information exchange, and mechanisms for implementation of the Convention, including the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (CoSP). In response to the international efforts in this regard, HE Al Attiyah pointed out that Qatar has adopted several important measures that hurried to endorse the UNCAC and adopted a lot ot steps to put such a convention into force. HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah and his accompanying delegation arrived in Riyadh earlier Friday for the purpose. HE Al Attiyah further said in his address before the opening session that Qatar then established the Qatar National Committee for Integrity and Transparency(QNCIT) which the senior leadership in the state has been keen to provide it with all the ingredients that allow it to perform its mission in complete objectivity and independence . Qatar's efforts were culminated in implementing the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) with the establishing of Qatar Administrative Control and Transparency Authority (ACTA) in 2011, said HE Al Attiyah . Elaborating he said," As a result of efforts made earlier by the National Committee for Integrity and Transparency and efforts being exerted now on part of the Administrative Control Transparency Authority now , the State of Qatar occupied a leading position among countries in the fight against corruption in the general classification of Transparency International, as contained in the advanced centers on the regional and Arab levels, where this progress came clear in the standings since 2007 and until now". He delighted in his speech that the progress made in addressing the problem of corruption and protection of integrity and strengthen the principles of transparency in Qatar and via national efforts ,can be multiplied through the efforts of cooperation and collective coordination at the regional, Arab and international levels, reflect the importance of regional cooperation and the Arab and international levels in addressing this serious phenomenon. The meeting was attended by HE Ali Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, Qatar's ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and members of the delegation accompanying HE the Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority. It is worth to mention that the meeting will discuss several important issues on the agenda the most important of which are coordination, consultation and exchange of information on the protection of integrity and anti-corruption as well as the proposal to adopt the GCC to the Convention on Gulf to protect integrity and fight against corruption, and the proposal to establish a committee in the General Secretariat to be responsible for the protection of integrity and the fight against corruption similar to the other specialized committees of the GCC Secretariat General ..in addition to the proposal for the establishment on part of the rest of the GCC states an independent body specialized in this regard. For his part, Secretary General of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani also gave an address before the opening session of the first meeting of the chief of GCC anti-corruption and integrity protection agencies. In his address, Al-Zayani stressed the growing threat of corruption at both the international and regional levels which made the UN to adopt the United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2003 in order to coordinate international efforts to combat corruption. The meeting is the first of its kind to be held within the GCC members and which came in response to a proposal made by President of Saudi Arabia's National Anti-corruption Commission, Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Sharif. The said proposal was made in order to complete the tributaries of the joint action through the activation of cooperation between the agencies involved in combating corruption and safeguarding integrity, and finding channels of communication between them for the the exchange of information, expertise and experiences in consistent with other areas of cooperation in the economic, social ,security, judicial and other areas. The GCC chief He stressed that he does not doubt that the participation in this meeting reflects the interest of the Gulf Cooperation Council of the importance of the role played by relevant bodies at the national and international efforts to combat corruption and protect the integrity.(QNA)