Jordan News

The Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission revealed that about 223 million dinars have been recovered during the past three years to the treasury, while the Minister of Local Administration, Tawfiq Krishan, affirmed that the government is committed to fighting financial and administrative corruption and strict adherence to the highest levels of transparency and objectivity within the frameworks of control and the legal issue, adding that the government of Bishr al-Khasawneh came In exceptional circumstances, there is no room for delay in making decisions.

During the celebration of the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission on the International Anti-Corruption Day, Krishan said that the follower and in-depth analyzer of the speech of the throne delivered by the King realizes that His Majesty strongly affirmed that Jordan’s ambitious vision is based on fixed axes, the most important of which is that Jordan is a state of law, and His Majesty will not allow the application of the law to be selective. He also emphasized that state institutions are capable of eradicating corruption from its roots and all those who abuse public money.

On Thursday, the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Development Program aimed at framing means of cooperation between the two parties to establish a strategic partnership to prevent corruption, in addition to providing support for initiatives, programmes, projects and activities in this field.

Krishan added that caution should be exercised against publishing everything that, intentionally or unintentionally, contributes to spreading rumors to discredit the homeland, which the Hashemite leadership and the Jordanian people have succeeded in preserving.

The memorandum seeks to work to increase awareness and enhance the capabilities of all those involved in the process of addressing corruption in the public sector, including local government bodies concerned with integrity, accountability and transparency, by supporting and developing training curricula, both face and electronic, and the development of a new transparency indicator for local government bodies.

It also seeks to support the Training and Innovation Center, including building the capacity of its staff, mobilizing local, regional and international experts, and supporting the development of training curricula, where possible, on anti-corruption topics.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the Commission by its Chairman, Muhannad Hijazi, while it was signed by Randa Abul-Hassan, the resident representative of the program in Jordan, on behalf of the United Nations Development Program.

Hegazy said that the Corona pandemic did not hinder the work of the Anti-Corruption Authority, and that the current year was pivotal in developing the authority’s work mechanisms, restructuring it and raising its preventive, supervisory and technical capabilities, at the sectoral and institutional levels, according to a participatory approach in close cooperation with other bodies related to combating corruption.

And he indicated that the authority has assigned 16 liaison officers to 22 government agencies with the aim of verifying the extent to which these agencies comply with national integrity standards and regulatory legislation. Liaison officers tracked 3,971 violations and breaches – between major and minor – in government departments.

According to Hegazy, a study conducted by the authority this year reported a decrease in the rate of abuse in government agencies in which liaison officers work from 5 to 7%, 23%, 25%, 35% and 38%, until the percentage of the decrease in the Ministry of Local Administration reached 52% compared to the period prior to the activation of This is mid-2019.

Hegazy confirmed that during the current year, the authority received 4807 complaints and news through personal attendance, using means of communication and communication, or through information received from the various official authorities, of which 3772 complaints and news were separated.

He added that 178 investigative files were referred to the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor for legal action, and the rest is still under procedure, and the department concerned with administrative grievances received 206 grievances, of which 165 were completed.

During the past three years 2019-2021, the authority managed to recover a total of 223,317,795 dinars, of which the share of the year 2019 was 116.284,795 dinars, and in the year 2020, about 66,250,000 dinars.

Hijazi added that the commission worked in the year 2021 to recover 40,783,000 dinars, and contributed to recovering 3,583,000 dinars, while judicial rulings were issued including inclusions in cases referred by the commission to the judiciary, amounting to 718 million dinars.

According to a study conducted on the percentage of judgments issued by the judiciary in corruption files, verdicts issued for conviction and criminalization during the past few months increased from 41% in 2020 to 45.02% in 2021, while the rest of the percentages were distributed among rulings either to stop the prosecution as a result of settlements made before the Judicial Committee, Or by non-responsibility or forfeiture, whether by general amnesty or death.

He emphasized that the authority had created an organizational unit specialized in the technical aspect (engineering, financial, industrial…etc). This unit received 141 investigative files this year, of which 118 files have been completed so far. The Anti-Money Laundering Department also received 11 investigation files, two of which were referred to the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.

The Investment Affairs Unit, which was created in 2020, received (128) investigation files related to bullying, extortion, exploitation or obstruction of official procedures, and completed 36 of them.