The governments of Canada, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Suriname confirmed this week to the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) their consent to receive on-site visits as part of the Fifth Round of the Mechanism for Follow-up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC) of the OAS.

The five countries notified the MESICIC Technical Secretariat of their decisions in accordance with the Methodology for Conducting On-site Visits. The five countries also consented to and received on-site visits during the Fourth Round of Review.

For the Fifth Round, which begins in March, the MESICIC Committee of Experts will review the implementation of the provisions in Article III, paragraphs 3 and 12 of theInter-American Convention against Corruption which refer to the needed instruction to government personnel and the study of preventive measures that take into account the relationship between equitable compensation and probity in public service. Moreover, the Committee will analyze the follow-up on the recommendations formulated to the States Parties in the Second Round, on topics such as public procurement, the hiring of public servants, whistleblower protection and the criminalization of acts of corruption under the Convention.

The affirmative answers from these five countries join those previously expressed by Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay, who communicated their consent to receive on-site visits as part of the Fifth round of MESICIC.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.