28/08/2017
Representatives of public institutions and experts deliberate on the progress made in the work of fighting corruption in Colombia
Remarks by Juan Manuel Santos in the Transparency and Integrity in Times of Peace Forum
The Secretariat of Transparency of the Office of the Presidency of Colombia organised, with FIIAPP’s help and through the ACTUE Colombia project, the forum entitled Transparency and Integrity in Times of Peace: How Can We Prevent Corruption in the Post-conflict Era? The purpose of this event was to present and deliberate on the progress and challenges in the fight against corruption and the promotion of transparency and public integrity.
The forum was chaired by the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, who presented a synthesis of the advances the government has made in the prevention of corruption. Among these advances, he highlighted the transparency initiatives in information systems for government administration, the online processes related to public procurement, the evolution in the production of open data aimed at making Colombia an Open State. He also pointed to the creation of a series of regulatory and institutional instruments oriented towards preventing corruption.
The event was also attended by an OECD expert and a number of senior Colombian public officials, including the deputy comptroller, deputy attorney general, deputy prosecutor, deputy justice minister, a senator, and experts from civil society and academia.
Participants in the two panel discussions stressed, on the one hand, the need to strengthen inter-agency coordination between control bodies as well as with the judicial branch.
On the other, they highlighted the importance of promoting a comprehensive approach in the fight against corruption in order to strengthen the institutional tools for prevention, such as internal control, as well as the importance of generating cultural and behavioural changes through education, and consolidation of an ethos of safeguarding of the public good.
Additionally, they highlighted the importance of reforms needed to break the vicious circle between election campaign financing and public procurement.
The ACTUE Colombia project has been providing technical assistance to the Secretariat of Transparency, the Civil Service and other Colombian public institutions since January 2014 to promote better standards of transparency and improve the Colombian State’s instruments for mitigating the risks of corruption.
