28 January 2008

STATEMENT BY
H. E. ANTASARI AZHAR
CHAIRMAN OF THE INDONESIAN ANTI CORRUPTION COMMISSION
AT
THE SECOND SESSION OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE STATES
PARTIES TO THE
UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST CORRUPTION
NUSA DUA, BALI, INDONESIA 28 JANUARY 1 FEBRUARY 2008
AGENDA ITEM I F: GENERAL DISCUSSION

Mr. President,
Excellencies Ministers and Ambassadors,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mr. President,

First of all, I should like to extend our congratulation for your appointment as the President of this  conference. I am confident that under your wise and able leadership this Conference will contribute further to the fight against corruption. My congratulation also goes to all members of the Bureau. Let me assure you my delegation s support and cooperation for the success of our Conference.

I would also like to express my delegation appreciation to the Government of Jordan of which without their conduct of successful first session of the Conference of the States Parties we would not have important results to further the implementation of the Convention. Let me also appreciate the Secretariat of the UNODC for the effective work and close cooperation in the preparation of this Conference in Bali.It is our ardent wish that our gathering here in Bali will yield positive results for the full implementation of the Convention.

Mr. President,

I can not agree more with your statement a little while ago that the first session of the Conference in Jordan in December 2006 was a historic moment for all of us as the first step toward the full implementation of the Convention as a response to the call of the world that we all need to continue our fight against corruption, our common enemy and evil in any society. Indeed, even a giant step needs the first step forward. Today, we see a notable achievement of the Convention as demonstrated by the increasing number of the States Parties to the Convention. As I recall, as at 10 November 2006 (doc. cac/cosp/2006/4), the Convention was ratified by 80 states and as at 20 January 1008 (doc. cac/cosp/2008/crp.1) the Convention was ratified by 107 states. This clearly shows that the political will to implement this Convention is very strong and that fight against corruption is high on the agenda of international community. It is our fervent hope that those countries which are not yet parties to the Convention would seriously consider to become parties to the Convention soon.

Mr. President,

During our deliberations in the coming days, we will discuss issues relating to review of implementation, asset recovery, technical assistance and bribery of foreign public officials as reflected by the agenda of the Conference. I understand that many countries have different priorities in their endeavors against corruption, but this Convention requires our faithful efforts to implement all provisions without exception.
The increasing number of States Parties and the global and comprehensive nature of the Convention are indeed heartening on one hand, but at the same time it poses challenges, especially in the context of the review implementation. One of the challenges is how to have an effective mechanism that could facilitate the States Parties to implement eight chapters and 81 articles of the Convention without duplicating regional or any other mechanism that many of the States Parties to this Convention are also parties or members of such mechanisms. In this regard, Indonesia supports the pilot project on review implementation that is currently under way and feels that this particular model of review mechanism could be one of the models that the States Parties would be willing to consider. We emphasize that the current participants of the pilot project may not yet encompass the challenges and problems faced by all States Parties, therefore it is worth considering to extend this pilot project. Based on Indonesia s own experience in different review mechanism of various multilateral conventions, Indonesia is of the view that a peer review using information gathered from self-assessment checklist along with information obtained from other regional review mechanism of anticorruption legal instruments would be something worth considered for future assessment.

Furthermore, because of the complexity of the issues covered by the Convention, my delegation suggests States Parties to take a two-stage approach to implement the Convention, whereby the first stage would constitute a review of certain chapters and the second stage would complete the remaining chapters of the Convention, where all process would take no longer than one year. This approach would probably be more suitable because countries have different types of challenges.

Mr. President,

One of important issues that we would like to deliberate in this Conference is asset recovery. The Convention has stipulated that asset recovery is a fundamental principle of the Convention. In this regard, when looking at the dimension of asset recovery which has domestic as well as international character, international cooperation is required. Cooperation among nations, not only among States Parties, in the field of asset recovery is indeed very critical because the corruptors and criminals with the help of technology could move their looted monies from one jurisdiction to another - regardless the status of ratification of that jurisdiction - faster than the time allotted to me to speak in this Conference this morning.

They are moving and hiding their assets with a complex financial engineering that seems to be lawful, but as a matter of fact, they are looting the money of poor people or other rightful owners from either developing countries or even developed countries.

Our experience in the domestic asset recovery shows that we need to work hard in this field, especially in instilling the notion that asset recovery is the fundamental principle of the Convention that has now become the law of the land of the Republic of Indonesia. Indonesia is in the process of strengthening the domestic asset recovery regime by drafting a law on non-conviction based asset forfeiture. In addition, at the international front, we are involved in asset recovery proceedings in several foreign jurisdictions. From this experience, we learn that the process of asset recovery is a very complex process that needs specific legal expertise on the law and legal process of the requesting states as well as the requested states. Direct and frequent consultation between the requesting and the requested states is a must in any successful attempt of asset recovery.

In this context, Indonesia proposes that this very Conference could develop a mechanism to facilitate asset recovery process by providing hands-on assistance to the requesting states involved experts. This mechanism could be called as a consultative group of experts on asset recovery. Indonesia is prepared to work closely with the distinguished delegates of the States Parties to materialize this consultative mechanism in order to implement Chapter V of the Convention.

It is also worth mentioning that in the context of asset recovery, Indonesia has joined the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative launched by the United Nations and the World Bank. Indonesia was present during the launching of the StAR initiative in New York, 17 September 2007. During the visit to the United Nations General Assembly 2007, the President of the Republic of Indonesia and the President of the World Bank have jointly announced Indonesia s participation in this program. Following up the participation, we have received a visit from a mission assessment team of UNODC and the World Bank. It is important to note that in designing the StAR program in Indonesia, all relevant stakeholders in Indonesia are involved so that the program would represent the priority and needs of Indonesia without any conditionality.

Mr. President,

Another important element of our deliberations is issue of technical assistance. Indonesia views technical assistance as a very important aspect in the implementation of the Convention, especially in the area of prevention. Our experience demonstrates that the public has less interest in the area of prevention because preventive measures normally do not create instant and dramatic yields, such as the arrest of high ranking public officials.

This is rather unfortunate because preventive measures are actually better than repressive measures as the crime itself is prevented from taking place in the first place. We are emphasizing more in preventive steps by among other strengthening internal oversight functions, management of conflict of interest, strengthening the integrity, transparency and accountability of public officials as well as mandatory wealth disclosure of public officials. Before concluding, I would like to welcome parliamentarians, civil societies, entrepreneurs and the media to this conference and wish you all good and productive deliberation in various side events and look forward to hearing your recommendations to the States Parties, so that all stake holders of this Conference could have their say incorporated in the final result of this conference. And I also encourage all of you to enjoy your time here in Bali.

I thank you Mr. President.