Fighting corruption

Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Thursday launched the National Strategy for Integrity and Anti-Corruption 2017-2025 on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day, which calls for the full respect and implementation of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) that Jordan ratified in 2003. 

At the ceremony, Mulki called on the Jordan Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (JIACC) to carry out its mandate with full vigour and determination in support of the common values of integrity, transparency and accountability. 

UNCAC describes corruption as “an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies”, and rightly so.

This international instrument also notes that this scourge “undermines democracy, [the] rule of law and leads to violations of human rights”, and that it is a worldwide phenomenon that affects big and small nations, rich or poor. 

As the convention duly notes, corruption “hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development and, therefore, undermines governments’ ability to provide basic services”,  especially to the poor. 

Above all, the international accord reaffirms core values such as honesty, respect for the rule of law, accountability and transparency. 

Jordan has gone a long way to fulfil these basic international norms by establishing the Anti-Corruption Commission   in 2006 and adopting the National Integrity Charter in 2013. 

Admittedly, however, graft remains a problem, perhaps on a more limited scale, but it still calls for more perseverance in the fight against corruption. 

There is a pressing need to demonstrate the results of the national campaign against corruption by making public those who have been implicated in and found guilty of graft, and what punishment has been meted out to them. 

On another note, while the UNCAC focuses on the material dimensions of corruption, the other dimensions of corruption include anti-democratic ideology or doctrine and other ideas that promote extremism and terrorism in all its forms. 

Corrupt values and goals need to be identified and targeted as well, since they can undermine the very fabric of society and put the entire country at risk. 

The scope of anti-graft legislation, therefore, must be expanded in order to cover non-material forms of corruption.