His Majesty King Abdullah II Sunday said that enhancing integrity is part and parcel of the comprehensive reform process based on the rule of law, that Jordan is forging ahead with.

Combatting corruption in all its forms and achieving justice will enhance the citizens’ confidence in state agencies and institutions, the King said as he received at Al Husseiniyeh Palace President of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (IACC), Mohammad Al Allaf, who handed him a copy of the anti-graft commission’s annual report.

The King urged the commission to jointly work with concerned authorities to revamp policies and modify the relevant legislations, while benefiting from best international practices and up-to-date technology to develop the commission’s work and raise its capacity.

His Majesty also called for the pursuit of awareness campaigns to entrench integrity and anti-graft criteria and the prevention of corruption and enhance integrity as an “institutionalised societal behaviour”.

The repot includes the commission’s achievements in 2016 as well as its recommendations to elevate the anti-graft body’s performance, including launching the 2017-2025 national strategy of the IACC and setting up a specialised entity to enhance national integrity based on the National Integrity Charter and its executive plan.

The report showed that the anti-corruption watchdog had received 1,241 complaints in 2016, 165 of which had been referred as investigative cases, while corrective measures were taken in 487 others, while some 432 cases were shelved for lack of suspicion of corruption or administrative wrongdoing and 157 were filed for investigation in 2017.

Regarding investigative cases, the report reveled that 151 of these had been referred to the prosecutor general.

A key recommendation in the report, which the King had stressed that it be implemented, was the introduction of amendments to the integrity and anti-corruption law to expand the IACC’s jurisdiction. Other proposals called for the unification of legislations that regulate government tenders and procurement procedures and addressing any legislative loopholes in this respect.

The commission had also proposed that the illicit fortunes law be amended to improve combatting corruption methods, draft legislation that requires companies adopt a unified code of good governance, enhance and expand e-governance to curb bribery and nepotism and revisit the policy of appointing heads and members of boards of the companies in which the government holds shares.

Source: Fana News