16.5.11

India finally ratifies UN anti-graft convention

India has completed the process of ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The move will help the Manmohan Singh government blunt the opposition’s charge of UPA dilly-dallying on this agreement. The government has been under pressure not just from its political opponents but also from the courts which have cracked the whip in several cases such as the 2G scam. “The ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption is a reaffirmation of our government’s commitment to fight corruption and to undertake vigorously administrative and legal reforms to enable our law-enforcement agencies to recover the illicit assets stolen by corrupt practices,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement issued before his departure for Kabul on Thursday morning. The ratification process was under consideration since September 2010.The convention, ratified six years after it was signed by India, will help the government seize illicit money and assets. According to the UN convention, each member country shall “consider adopting appropriate legislative and administrative measures, consistent with the objectives of this convention and in accordance with the fundamental principles of its domestic law, to prescribe criteria concerning candidature for and election to public office”. It also prescribes disciplinary or other measures against public officials who violate the codes or established standards. Before ratifying the UN convention, the government had to amend domestic laws to bring about greater transparency in funding election campaigns and political parties among other crucial legislative steps to bring it at par with the international instrument. The convention has already been inked by 140 countries.

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