REPRESENTATIVES of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption will pay Guyana a site visit to engage state, government and civil society bodies on the country’s situation with regards to compliance with treaty obligations since its first report under the Treaty Mutual Evaluation Mechanism.

With the countdown to the October 8 date, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon made this announcement yesterday at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

GUYANA’S FIRST SUCH EXPERIENCE
The visit by the anti-corruption body allows nation states to evaluate each other in the context of treaty obligations and this is Guyana’s first such experience and the visitors would be drawn from Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago.
According to Luncheon, their three-day stay is intended to provide the Organisation of American States (OAS) grouping with a much broader perspective that a site visit ideally provides on the anti-corruption legislative, judicial and administrative dimensions in Guyana.
“National oversight bodies would be approached, would be actively involved, would be dominant in their engagement with the OAS body,” he informed.
The treaty obligations under the convention see the compliance reports for each member state in the OAS being compiled by other countries. In essence, experts from other countries would examine how Guyana is complying.
The compilations are provided periodically with recommendations and, on the basis of those, activities are planned. All of the member states are visited.
“Every round sees a number of member states having site visits that enhance the treaty officials; their perspective about how a country is discharging their obligations,” Luncheon explained.

OVERSIGHT BODIES
He said during the coming occasion, engagement with the government and civil society is dominant and specifically, for those bodies that are involved in oversight like the Parliament, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Public Service Commission (PSC), among others.
These bodies would be engaged, formally, with the visiting team as they seek to flush out their understanding and report on Guyana’s compliance, the HPS observed.