ÿþ<html> <head> <title> Developing Countries Need To Act To Prevent Official Misconduct </title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=EUC-KR"> <meta name="KEYWORDS" lang="en-us" content="Bribery and Corruption, Transparency"> <meta name="KEYWORDS" lang="kr" content="Bribery and Corruption, Transparency"> <meta name="ROBOTS" content="NOINDEX"> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000EE" vlink="#551A8B" alink="#FF0000"> <table CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="588" align=center > <tr> <td WIDTH="100%" HEIGHT="11"><img SRC="wwwgztop.gif" height=30 width=588> <img SRC="http://usinfo.state.gov/usinfo/img/assets/3602/WashingtonFile.gif" alt="Washington File"> <p> <font size=-1> <!-- BEGIN DATA BUFFER --> <p>04 April 2007</p> <h3>Developing Countries Need To Act To Prevent Official Misconduct</h3> <p class="subhead">U.S. ethics office offers assistance on conflict-of-interest issues</p> <p class="byline">By Andrzej Zwaniecki<br/>USINFO Staff Writer<br/><br/> </p> <p>Johannesburg, South Africa -- Developing nations should not wait for a national scandal to put in place a system for preventing and detecting misconduct by public officials, says a representative of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE).</p> <p>The creation of the OGE in 1978 was one of the good-governance reforms introduced in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal in the United States. The name of the scandal refers to a 1972 break-in at Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington by operatives of President Richard Nixon's re-election committee and the following cover-up, which led to the president s resignation.</p> <p>The OGE, a small agency within the executive branch, administers code of conduct, financial disclosure and ethics training programs for federal officials and employees.</p> <p>Jane Ley, deputy director of the office, said many countries are under pressure to investigate and prosecute cases of bribery and fraud and do not always have the resources for programs to help prevent misconduct. But most international anti-corruption conventions and similar commitments those countries honor call for codes of conduct for public officials and other good-governance measures.</p> <p> At some point they will have to think about prevention and detection measures as well, Ley told <i>USINFO</i> April 3 at the Global Forum on Fighting Corruption, being held in Johannesburg, South Africa.</p> <p>Ley is co-leader of the U.S. delegation to the forum. She spoke to forum delegates about conditions for effective anti-corruption measures.</p> <p>Many countries address corruption through investigation and prosecution but prevention and detection programs are not as advanced in some of those nations.</p> <p> We share mistakes and successes and hopefully they will benefit,&quot; Ley said.  There are now opportunities for faster learning curves than there were 10 or more years ago. </p> <p>The number of countries seeking such learning opportunities is growing, as indicated by increasingly frequent requests for technical assistance from OGE in the last 10 years, Ley said.</p> <p>The agency shares its ideas and experiences with foreign governments directly and through multilateral fora. The OGE has formal ties with counterparts in Argentina and Slovenia and has worked with other countries, including former Soviet republics.</p> <p>Because OGE resources are limited, Ley said she hoped the relationships with Argentina and Slovenia, as leaders in their regions, will have a broader impact.</p> <p>The OGE also has an extensive network of contacts with fellow organizations around the world, including the Hong Kong s Independent Commission Against Corruption, considered a global authority on government ethics. Part of the assistance OGE provides is to share those contacts.</p> <p>Some countries seeking OGE s assistance have quite different political and economic regimes than those of the United States and might choose different approaches to managing conflicts of interest. So the dialogue with other countries focuses on good governance measures that are universal.</p> <p>For example, Ley said, the majority of U.S. government officials and employees put high value on having access to a person  - an ethics officer, for example  - who can answer questions related to official conduct, according to OGE surveys.</p> <p> Such or similar persons can be made available to public officials and employees almost anywhere in the world, Ley said.</p> <p>An online slide show of <a href="http://www.globalforum5.gov.za/dynamic/dynamic.aspx?pageid=387&amp;id=48">Ley's presentation</a> is available on the Global Forum's Web site.</p> <p>For additional information, see <i><a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/ei/economic_issues/bribery_and_corruption.html">Bribery and Corruption</a></i>.</p> <p>(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)</p> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>