Serving the public interest and upholding the public trust is the fundamental mission of the every public official. While striving to achieve it, it is crucial that public officials manage the conflict between their private interest and public duties.
As a follow up to the implementation of the National Integrity and Anti-Corruption Strategy 2014-2018, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) conducted the first ever workshop on managing CoI for parliamentarians, judges, civil servants, corporate and private entrepreneurs including media and CSOs from 13-16 January, 2015 at the ACC conference hall .The objective of the workshop was to create awareness on the implications of weak management of CoI and to further strengthen the management of CoI in public and private institutions. A total of 120 participants from 52 public and private agencies attended the workshop.
The participants were introduced to the concept of CoI, its scenarios for respective sectors, modus operandi to manage it and international best practices including case examples of the implications of unmanaged CoI. The participants also had a series of discussions on the issues of CoI faced while discharging ones duties and the existing practice for addressing it including the legal provisions. The four day workshop was facilitated by Mr. Richard Edward Messick, anti-corruption expert from Washington D.C. He has worked with the World Bank as a Co-Director of the Bankβs Legal Institutions Thematic Group, advising the Bank staff and policymakers of the developing countries on integrity and anti-corruption policies.
A review report including the issues raised during the workshop and general guidelines for managing CoI in public and private sectors will be prepared following the workshop.
Feedback from the participants:
- 81.8 % of the participants agreed that the workshop was useful;
- 71% of the participants agreed that the duration of the session was adequate;
- 42.7% of the participants agreed that the workshop has facilitated them to understand the concept of CoI and its implications;
- 57.2% of the participants agreed that the workshop has facilitated them to understand the concept of CoI to some extent;
- 47.7 % agreed that the presentation style was used by facilitator was effective;
- 95.5 % of the participants would like to attend similar workshop in the future;
- 4.5 % of the participants do not want to attend similar workshop again.
Mr. Richard interacting with Secretaries from Ministries and Heads of various agencies
Mr. Richard interacting with Human Resource Officers