Press Release
September 18, 2008

Conference on the National Network on Anti-Corruption in Timor Leste (NAC-TL) to Promote Transparency and Accountability in Timor-Leste

"Building networks among parliaments to fight corruption"
Senator Edgardo J. Angara
Presentor

Timor-Leste is the first democratic state born during the first decade of the 21st century. And its birth has more than symbolic meaning. It's a propitious and favorable time because Timor-Leste is emerging into a world of dazzling innovation and change.

For a newly independent state, the time offers both great opportunity and a big challenge. Timor-Leste has made significant progress but still faces many of the challenges common to post-conflict states - poverty, political instability, weak public and private sector capacity, poor infrastructure, and narrow economic opportunities.

As history tells us, the first step to achieving political and economic success is good governance and strong public institutions.

Honesty, integrity, transparency of action, accountability for results, and the rule of law form the elements of good governance, which is the foundation of a modern state. Without strong institutions in place, an economic system cannot work well, let alone achieve its full potential for progress and prosperity.

We know all too well the evils of corruption. We are aware how these evils erode the foundations of market economics by their disregard of the rule of law. We have seen that corruption is insidious, that it attacks the very foundation of authentic governance. We have seen it create social division and civic distrust.

Moreover, corruption scares away badly-needed investments. It wastes scarce resources, deprives poor people of infrastructure and basic services, increases production costs and results in substandard quality and inferior service.

But we also know that honesty, truth telling, and fair dealing are valued everywhere, in every land, in every climate. These are the qualities that set apart long-lived successful governments, from short-lived bad ones.

Fortunately, achieving good governance can be helped greatly by building networks among parliaments in the fight against corruption.

International cooperation is an important ingredient in addressing the problem of corruption. Just as corruption transcends borders, so too must we fight it on a transnational level.

One concrete example of this is the South East Asia Parliamentarians Against Corruption or SEAPAC. It is a regional chapter of the Ottawa-based Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC).

SEAPAC brings together parliamentarians and government leaders, international organizations and individuals throughout Southeast Asia in a coherent and concerted effort to fight corruption, and promote transparency and good government in the region. Its organizing members come from the parliaments of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Cambodia.

SEAPAC adopted a Regional Action Plan, which has four main components, namely:

1. Institutionalization, which consists of strengthening the network of parliamentarians belonging from South East Asia, establishment of country chapters, and undertaking of activities in accordance with the objectives of SEAPAC, eventually making SEAPAC an authority in the fight against corruption.

2. Capacity and knowledge building, which will provide the members of SEAPAC with the necessary resources to map out legislative actions through pilot studies and documentation of good practices.

3. Reform dialogues, which will cross-fertilize the practical experiences brought in by the participants from other regions.

4. Finally, SEAPAC continues to push for the ratification of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in its member-countries, making them full-pledged parties to this landmark UN convention. For one, the Philippine Senate ratified the UNCAC last November 2006, making the Philippines only the second country in Southeast Asia to have done so.

UNCAC is a milestone in international law. For the first time, the international community has agreed that assets stolen from one country and hidden in another must be returned to the victim country. Hence recovery of stolen assets is more greatly facilitated.

We in SEAPAC believe that as parliamentarians, it is our responsibility to lead the fight against corruption: to make parliaments work better as democratic institutions of oversight and to hold our governments accountable; to ensure the effective delivery of health care, education, clean water, roads, infrastructure, employment; to come up with mechanisms to prevent corruption; and to initiate measures that promote transparency, accountability and consistency.

I have been serving the Philippine Senate for 21 years, and I am now on my fourth term. Our experience in the passage of laws that aim to improve the public service delivery system may be instructive to Timor-Leste.

The Procurement Reform Law, which I authored in Congress, overhauls what was then an obsolete and fraud-prone public procurement system - from the purchase of government supplies, to the hiring of consultants, to the bidding and award for government infrastructure contracts. This law puts in place a system of reward and protection to those who expose corruption, and requires a rigid regulatory audit to be conducted, focused on simplifying ways of doing business with government.

At the time I shepherded this law through the legislative mill of our Congress, I had to face tremendous pressure from government contractors who have links with members of bids and awards committees. But today, the Procurement Reform Law stands as my country's biggest anti-corruption measure.

The Ombudsman Law, which I also authored, similarly seeks to cleanse our bureaucracy and set our politicians straight. This law simplifies the rules governing the prosecution of bureaucrats involved in graft and corruption, and imposes severe penalties for violations of our anti-graft laws.

A Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Servants hopes to promote high standards of trust.

The pending Political Party Development and Campaign Finance Reform Act, which I also authored, seeks to transform political parties into public institutions, and provide state subsidy to political parties that will adopt an internal code of conduct and agree to public audit of their financial transactions. It hopes to promote a breed of politicians rooted in ideology, instead of being bound to the interests of their financiers.

Studies show the connection between corruption and ideology. Political parties which lack strong ideological commitments are more prone to corruption. It is this lack of strong ideological base that often compels political parties to resort to money politics in gaining votes on account of their inability to offer a concrete program of action to the voters.

This vicious cycle of unprincipled politics and corruption has seriously compromised the integrity of political parties and helped contribute to the widespread universal distrust of political parties.

As the SEAPAC is poised at strengthening its network of parliamentarians from South East Asia, may I take this occasion to invite Timor-Leste to join SEAPAC, and together we can map out legislation and document good practices in the region in order to use them as tools for reform.

Thank you and good day.

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