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December 20,
2006, Ramallah- Palestine. AMAN celebrated the
occasion of the International Anti-Corruption
Day, which coincides on December 9 of each
year. The festival entitled “Transparency
Festival” was mainly organized to raise the
awareness of the Palestinian public and
representatives of various sectors in the
Palestinian community on the need to curb
corruption in Palestine and to encourage
individuals and institutions to work jointly
towards a National Integrity System through
adopting values of integrity, principles of
transparency, and systems of accountability.
The Festival,
first of its kind in Palestine, included a
ceremony on the occasion of signing
anti-corruption codes of conduct for the private
and public sector organizations, and local
authorities, where they publicly declared their
commitment to fighting corruption in their work,
through full adherence to the principles found
in the anti-corruption codes prepared by AMAN.
AMAN developed the anti-corruption codes of
conduct through a year-long process, which
involved all stakeholders in the development
phase. Three Integrity Awards were granted to
three employees from the public, media, and
local authorities sector.
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Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Board Chairperson at
AMAN
Dr.
Hanan Ashrawi, opened the festival
referring to current deteriorating
conditions in Palestine, mainly
characterized by a failing value system,
infighting, deteriorating economy, siege
and hunger. She stated that such a
terrible situation escalate calls for a
nation-wide movement to fight corruption
and the development of anti-corruption
mechanisms. She mentioned that AMAN
Coalition had succeeded in making the
PNA sign a Letter of Intent to commit
itself to unilateral implementation of
the requirements of the UN Convention
against Corruption, even-though the PNA
is not yet an official state in the UN.
This letter was sent to Mr. Kofi Anan
late 2004. She added that combating
corruption is not just about holding
corrupt people accountable to their
action, but is complemented by curbing
the chances for its spread through
building a strong national integrity
system. She stressed the fact that all
sectors in the Palestinian community
have a shared responsibility to work
together in promoting values of
integrity, systems of transparency and
accountability, ethics and professional
standards in the workplace.
She pointed that
the Integrity Awards, granted for the
first time in Palestine, are a way to
encourage individuals and institutions
in their fight against corruption
through the promotion of integrity
values. She explained that a huge number
of nominations were received for this
Award; however, the three winners were
chosen based on their compatibility with
the
previously set criteria. |
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Mr. Rafeeq Al Husseini, on Behalf of his
Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas
 He
addressed the audience stressing the
importance of transparency, as opposed
to ambiguity, as it provides free access
to information to the public. He added
that transparency is a human value that
should be incorporated within the
educational system; he also conveyed the
Palestinian President Office’s
commitment towards achieving systems of
transparency and accountability in all
political and financial matters.
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 Mr.
Kamal Al-Sharafi, Member of AMAN’s Board
of Directors
Mr.
Kamal Al-Sharafi, Member of AMAN’s Board
of Directors expressed his appreciation
for AMAN on preparing such an activity.
He also thanked the attendance for
attending the Festival as a token for
their commitment to principles of
transparency and accountability. He
reiterated that the Palestinian people
and institutions are obliged to work
seriously towards reform and
anti-corruption. |
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Integrity Award
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An annual
award granted by AMAN Coalition, for the first
time, for the private & public sectors employees
and journalists who have previously helped in
exposing/preventing corrupt actions and misuse
of public funds. The award aims at encouraging
individuals and institutions to combat
corruption through promoting integrity. The
three winners had contributed to curbing
corruption each in his workplace. The
winners were:
1- Mr.
Montasir Hamdan – Al-Hayat
Daily: A Palestinian journalist and reporter
since 1996. He conducted investigative
journalism in different topics pertaining to the
work of public and civil institutions. For
example, he reported on administrative and
financial corruption at a vocational training
center, official health insurance at the public
sector, misuse of state cars by some PLC
members, and other topics related to the misuse
of public funds.
2-
Mr.
Hassan Okasha – Ministry of Transportation:
He was able to reveal one of the biggest
corruption files; the file of returnees’ cars.
After revealing this file, Mr. Okasha was
subjected to both bribes and harassments.
3- Mr.
Hussam Assi- Qarawat Bani Hassan
Municipality: Works as an accountant at the
municipality. He was able to reveal fraud cases
committed by the municipality engineer. The
information revealed by Mr. Assi had led to the
termination of the engineer’s work.
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Evaluation
Committee:
An
evaluation committee was composed for the
purpose of choosing the best candidates for the
Integrity Award in the most transparent and
integrate manner. The committee includes high
ranked dedicated Palestinian personalities known
for their integrity and neutrality. Members of
the committee are:
1- Dr. Hanan
Ashrawi, Board Chairperson at the Palestinian
Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue
and Democracy – MIFTAH, Committee Chairperson.
2- Dr. George
Giacaman, General Director of the Palestinian
Institute for the Study of Democracy, MUWATIN,
Committee Member.
3- Mr. Abdel
Rahman Abu Arafeh, Director General of the Arab
Thought Forum, Committee Member.
4- Mr.
Shihada Alawna, Acting General Director for
Monitoring Non-Government Organizations,
Financial and Administrative Control Bureau,
Committee Member.
5- Dr. Ali
Jarbawi, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Public
Administration, Birzeit University, Committee
Member.
6- Mr. Issam
Younis, Director General of Al-Mezan Center for
Human Rights, Committee Member.
7- Mr. Jameel
Hilal, Researcher, Committee Member.
8- Mr. Issam
Aqel, Executive Director for the Association of
Palestinian Local Authorities, Committee Member.
9- Mr. Naim
Toubassi,
Palestinian Journalists’ Leader,
Committee
Member.
10- Dr. Lamis Al- Alami,
Director-General of the Palestinian Independent
Commission for Citizens' Rights, Committee
Member.
11- Dr.
Hadeel Qazaz, Program Coordinator, Heinrich Boll
Foundation, Committee Member.
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Signing the
Codes of Conduct |
Codes of
Conduct are guiding principles for employees at
different institutions on how to reach higher
levels of integrity in their work.
Representative of the three sectors addressed
the audience stressing the importance of curbing
corruption as a means for long term development
and the need of anti-corruption codes of
conduct.
(Representative
of the Private Sector signing the
anti-corruption code of conduct )
(Representative
of the Local Governance
signing the anti-corruption code of conduct )
(Representative
of the Public Sector signing the
anti-corruption code of conduct )
Mr. Bassem
Khoury, Secretary General, Palestinian
Coordination Council of the Private Sector
stated that the different Palestinian sectors
work towards achieving sustainable development
and good living standards for the Palestinian
people. He added that reaching an advanced
transparency stage requires joint efforts by all
sectors. He suggested announcing the names and
salaries of employees at the different sectors
in the newspapers as a way to identify corrupted
persons. He reiterated that corruption is a
taboo that should be eliminated.
Mr. Bassam
Zakarneh, Head of the Union of Government
Employees, conveyed the commitment of public
sector employees to ethics and professional
standards at the workplace. He called on the
Palestinian Cabinet and General Personnel
Council to endorse the Code of Conduct and to
include it in the Civil Servant Law.
Mr. Majed
Abu Ramadan, Head of the Association of
Palestinian Local Authorities, expressed his
appreciation for AMAN’s efforts in promoting
systems of accountability and transparency
calling on establishing better communication
mechanisms that would enable the public to have
free and easy access to information at local
authorities. He also stressed the importance of
putting a compliant system in place, forming
local area committees that would act as advisors
for local councils, developing policies for the
work of local authorities, and adopting the code
of conduct at the different authorities as a way
to ensure integrity and accountability.
Final Remarks:
Dr.
Azmi Shuaibi, General Coordinator AMAN
Coalition, in a final remark, addressed the
audience emphasizing that the codes of conduct
are the result of a one year’s continuous effort
and that these documents will be further
developed to contribute to change traditional
concepts in a way that coincides with the fact
that employees work to serve the citizens.
He stressed
that this effort comes as apart and parcel of
the fight against corruption. He pointed that
AMAN had put in place several programs that aim
at promoting integrity at all sectors. He
stressed that the concepts adopted by AMAN
comply with the Palestinian cultural heritage.
Dr.
Shuaibi also called for securing immunity for
those working on combating corruption calling on
the Attorney General’s Office to speed up
dealing with the corruption cases. He also added
that AMAN will be working with the UN Office on
implementing a joint project that aims at
promoting the UN Convention against Corruption
in Palestine. Dr. Shuaibi also mentioned that
both AMAN and CHF have recently launched a joint
Program entitled “ Anti-corruption Training
Program” which aims at providing Palestinian
youth with an understanding of corruption and
how to combat it through transparency,
accountability, and integrity. The project
launch on December 9, 2006 coincided with the
United Nation’s Anti-Corruption Day, an
international day designated to raise awareness
about corruption and its negative social and
economic effects. Four showings of an
interactive, educational play were held in Al-Kasaba
theatre in Ramallah for 600 school children who
attended from all over the city. In addition,
around 60,000 booklets, leaflets and educational
posters were distributed to 62 targeted schools.
ACT plans additional activities throughout this
and next semester in schools across the West
Bank and Gaza. ACT will also develop a
university course on corruption to be piloted in
Birzeit University, run specially designed
summer camps for children (in the summer of
2007), create a virtual library so that the
public can access books, articles and other
materials on corruption available on-line, and
publish a newsletter to raise awareness on
corruption, transparency and accountability.
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