The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Michael McDowell, T.D., today welcomed the publication by the Council of Europe group GRECO (the Group of States against Corruption) of the second round Mutual Evaluation Report on Ireland.

The Report, which focused on three themes - Confiscation of the Proceeds of Crime,  Public Administration and Legal Persons (Bodies Corporate) - was very positive.  In its conclusions, the Report states that "Ireland has a solid framework for dealing with proceeds of corruption and instrumentalities".  It added, in relation to the work of the Criminal Assets Bureau that "the efficiency of the civil forfeiture scheme is particularly impressive."

In relation to public administration, the Report concluded that "public administration has, during the last decade, been considerably modernised towards transparency, customer-oriented services and integrity."  Finally, on the theme of corporate bodies, the Report observed that "there is, generally, a well developed legal system concerning legal persons [bodies corporate]".

The Report contains six recommendations; four in the area of public administration and two on the theme of bodies corporate.  Reacting to the findings of the Report, the Minister said "The positive conclusions of this widely respected anti-corruption body are a testament to the efforts of this Government to combat corruption throughout Irish society."  He added that the number of recommendations was amongst the lowest in Reports on member countries concluded so far in this round of evaluations.  The recommendations cover areas such as Freedom of Information, reporting of suspicions of corruption by public officials and increased sanctions for account offences by corporate bodies.

The Minister undertook to begin work with his Ministerial colleagues immediately on examining the recommendations and working on their implementation.  Under GRECO procedures, Ireland has eighteen months in which to take the recommended actions. 

The text of the full Report may be found on the GRECO website www.greco.coe.int

28 February 2006

 

Note for editors

The GRECO (Group of States against Corruption) is a Council of Europe body which monitors, through a process of mutual evaluation and peer pressure, the observance of the Guiding Principles in the Fight against Corruption and the implementation of international legal instruments adopted in pursuance of the Programme of Action against Corruption. Full membership of the GRECO is reserved to those who participate fully in the mutual evaluation process and accept to be evaluated.

According to its Statute, the aim of the GRECO is to improve its members' capacity to fight corruption by monitoring the compliance of States with their undertakings in this field. In this way, it will contribute to identifying deficiencies and insufficiencies of national mechanisms against corruption, and to prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms in order to better prevent and combat corruption.

GRECO is responsible, in particular, for monitoring observance of the Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption and implementation of the international legal instruments adopted against Corruption:

 

Evaluation Procedure

The evaluation procedures are described in detail in the GRECO Statute and Rules of Procedure. Ad hoc teams of experts are appointed, on the basis of the list of experts proposed by the GRECO members, to evaluate each member in each evaluation round. Evaluation teams examine replies to questionnaires, request and examine additional information to be submitted either orally or in writing, visit member countries for the purpose of seeking additional information of relevance to the evaluation and prepare draft evaluation reports for discussion and adoption at the plenary sessions.

 

Ireland's Participation

Ireland became a member of GRECO in May 1999 and is represented at meetings and other fora by members of the Criminal Law Division in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.  Ireland ratified the Council of Europe Criminal Convention on Corruption through the introduction of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2001, which was signed into law on 9th July, 2001.  This legislation also enabled Ireland to ratify EU and OECD conventions against corruption.

 

Recommendations of the 2nd Round Evaluation Report

i. to reconsider the system of fees for requests for access to official information according to the Freedom of Information Act as well as with regard to the available review and appeal procedures in this respect (paragraph 78);

ii. to introduce clear rules/guidelines and training for public officials to report instances of corruption, or suspicions thereof, which they come across in their duty and, to establish adequate protection for public officials who report instances of corruption (whistleblowers) (paragraph 82);

iii. to establish regular training for all public officials concerned with regard to the principles of the Civil Service Code of Standards and Behaviour (central government) and the Code of Conduct for Employees (local government) as well as with regard to other relevant codes of conduct of the public administration (paragraph 83);

iv.  to establish centralised systems for collecting statistics on the use of disciplinary proceedings and sanctions covering central as well as local administrations (paragraph 84);

v. to consider strengthening the material checking function of the Company Registration Office (CRO) with regard to the accuracy of information submitted in the registration process, in particular, with regard to the identity of persons behind a legal person (paragraph 109);

vi. to consider increasing the penal sanctions for account offences in order to ensure that the available sanctions are effective, proportionate and dissuasive (paragraph 113).