Kuwait keen on enforcing world’s highest anti-corruption standards

‘Eradicating graft vital for state development plan success’

BAGHDAD, April 16, (KUNA): Kuwait is eager to enhancing anti-graft policies through applying the world’s highest standards, chairman of the national anti-corruption authority has stated.

Kuwait is prioritizing all efforts to combat corruption and address its root causes, Chairman of the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) Abdulrahman AlNemash said in his statement at the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the Arab Network for the Promotion of Integrity and Combating Corruption which kicked off in Baghdad Sunday.

He clarified that Kuwait deeply believed that eradicating graft was the most important factor for the success of the state development plan of 2035.

He lauded the government’s unlimited support to the authority’s efforts to eliminate corruption.

This support had been crystalized in a series government decrees to streamline the authorities work, he suggested.

The Cabinet is preparing a new law to impose a merit-based system for the choice of leaders of the state institutions, he disclosed.

Al-Nemash noted that Kuwait had rushed to sign international and regional anti-corruption conventions such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption; Arab AntiCorruption Convention; the Arab Convention on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing; The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC); Arab Convention against Transnational Organized Crime; and the International Anticorruption Academy agreement.

The state had also established Nazaha to spearhead the efforts to promote transparency, integrity and anti-corruption and good governance policies in public and private sectors.

Al-Nemash pointed out that Kuwait had also created proper legal framework for an effective fight against corruption in both sectors.

The national anti-corruption authority had helped formulate a new law on the prevention of the conflict of the interests which was recently passed by the National Assembly, he said.

He added that the authority had also referred to the National Assembly a draft law on the right to the access of information as well as amendments to the penal code to penalize bribery in public and private sectors.

The anti-graft body was also planning to hold a forum to get experts views on the amendment of the tenders law, he noted.

Nazaha had approved terms of reference for setting a comprehensive national strategy for integrity, transparency, and anticorruption to guarantee Kuwait’s compliance with standards identified in the United Nations Convention against Corruption and to improve Kuwait’s ranking on the global Corruption Perceptions Index.

Officials and representatives from 18 Arab countries and 25 organizations are partaking in the convention.