Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea), 6 April 2022 - UNODC, the custodian of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), is working with the PNG Interim Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) to strengthen its establishment and operations, as PNG moves towards appointing an ICAC Commissioner and Assistant Commissioners.
UNODC is supporting ICAC in the framework of the ‘Project on Preventing and Countering Corruption in Papua New Guinea’ (the ‘PNG Anti-Corruption Project’), implemented jointly by UNODC and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Papua New Guinea and funded by the European Union (EU). UNDP contributed to the workshops and trainings and has ongoing close collaboration with UNODC.
A series of workshops and trainings in Port Moresby last week enabled the Interim ICAC leadership and staff to explore issues around developing priority standard operating procedures, such as an induction package for the new leadership team and staff, a Code of Conduct, and a clear communication strategy, including necessary communication products and activities to meet the commitments of the PNG ICAC.
Since the appointment of Interim ICAC Commissioner, Mr. Thomas Eluh, in June 2018, the Interim ICAC has engaged in extensive work to establish a modern ICAC in accordance with the PNG Constitution and the Organic Law on the Independent Commission Against Corruption, passed on 20 November 2020.
"Fighting corruption is very complex and requires a concerted effort from every citizen to have any chance of minimizing this epidemic. Therefore, if you want a corruption-free and -safe tomorrow for you and for the future of PNG, I call on everyone now to assist ICAC in whatever way possible to try and eradicate corruption from society and save PNG from the clutches of corruption," said Mr Eluh.
Under the PNG Anti-Corruption Project, UNODC has the responsibility to help ICAC deliver, among other things, enhanced internal organizational, management and staffing rules; assistance in drafting the organizational structure and staffing table; recruitment procedures based on principles of efficiency, transparency and objective criteria such as merit, equity and aptitude plus corporate management rules and an ethics code.
“UNODC has assisted the Interim ICAC in its establishment work through engagement with other international and regional Anti-Corruption Agencies and through the UNCAC processes. The new EU-supported PNG Anti-Corruption Project enables UNODC and the ICAC to move to implementing the crucial legal procedures to fully establish the ICAC,” said the UNODC PNG Anti-Corruption Adviser, Graeme Gunn.
