Times Of Swaziland: ANTI-CORRUPTION COMPLIANCE LAUNCHED

ANTI-CORRUPTION COMPLIANCE LAUNCHED
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Sabelo Majola on 24/08/2020 08:14:00


MBABANE – The COMESA Business Council (CBC) is launching the Regional Model
Code on Anti-corruption Compliance for Enterprises in the COMESA Region.
COMESA is the acronym for Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. This
will be discussed in a two-day virtual workshop for Chambers and Associations to
be held today and tomorrow in English, and on August 26 and 27 in French.
“Anti-corruption compliance has become a key requisite for regional and global
partnerships; empowering the private sector to stem corruption and enhance their
participation in transparency and anti-corruption reform initiatives is
essential to creating an enabling business environment and sustainable
partnerships,” said Sandra Uwera, Chief Executive Officer of the COMESA
Business Council.
She said this initiative was part of the business integrity project that the CBC
has been implementing in partnership with the Centre for International Private
Enterprise (CIPE), through which over 200 enterprises in COMESA have received
capacity building assistance related to best practices in business ethics and
integrity.
Corruption
Expected outcomes of the training workshops, is that associations would be able
to investigate and articulate the need for corruption prevention within their
own governance structures; appreciate and understand the methods for mapping,
developing and reviewing an effective compliance programme that meets
international standards; and that they will be able to promote compliance among
their members.
This is in line with the undertakings that the Kingdom of Eswatini made to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) when requesting the E1.7 billion loan which
IMF approved.
The government said it would intensify reforms to strengthen governance,
transparency and accountability, and reduce vulnerabilities to state-capture and
other forms of corruptions. Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg said government
had taken a multi-pronged approach which included, among other things, to
publish on the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA)’s website
(www.ndma.org.sz) bi-monthly reports on funds released and expenditures incurred
for health, social and other crisis-mitigation spending.