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Accountability Education Platform Workshops
March, 2008
Kirkuk, Wasit, Diwaniyya, Babil
During the month of March, IF held four in-country workshops to promote its Accountability Education Platform (AEP)
Kirkuk Workshop
On March 3 2008, IF and the Bara’em for Children’s rights organization held a workshop in the Kirkuk province. The workshop gathered 25 participants and issued several recommendations including:
- Supporting the media in divulgating corruption cases
- Activating CPI’s role and expanding its prerogatives to better monitor the Iraqi government as a whole
- Assessing all officials’ possessions before the start of their jobs to better track questionable increases in their wealth
- Activating civil society’s role in raising awareness and educating about the dangers of corruption and spreading the concepts of transparency and accountability
- Abolition of quotas in all its forms.
- Increasing citizen’s living standards and combating unemployment
- Assigning the “right person” to the “right place”
- Legislating anti-corruption laws and enforcing laws that can combat corruption
The workshop was covered by several media outlets including Kirkuk’s local TV station; Al-Hurriyya TV station; Kurdistan TV station; Baba Karkar local TV station; Al-Ittihad Newspaper; Bassayra Newspaper and Harim Magazine.
Wasit Workshop
On March 10 2008, IF and the Democratic Woman Organization held a workshop in the Wasit governorate. The workshop gathered 25 participants and included the following recommendations:
- The necessity to cooperate with civil society organizations to combat corruption in government institutions and to bestow NGOs a watchdog role by implementing the NGOs law.
- Raising awareness among citizens about administrative and financial corruption
- The necessity to adopt necessary legislations that help combat corruption
- Activating the roles of justice and punitive laws to punish the culpable
- Promoting the information’s role in collecting information; improving its capabilities and enhancing its efficiency in research and investigation and in delivering accurate information about corruption cases to the Iraqi citizens
- Holding more similar meetings in the provinces and raising awareness to as much government employees as possible.
Diwaniyya Workshop
On March 17 2008, IF and the Women’s Human Rights Center held a workshop in the Diwaniyya province. The 36 participants included members of the provincial council; government employees; academics; representatives from the Ministry of Human Rights and from various political, secular and religious blocs; as well as media and NGO representatives. The workshop discussed the main reasons for Iraq’s widespread corruption. It was pointed out that the most important reason for administrative and financial corruption is the system of sectarian quotas. Recommendations included:
- Reinforcing the role of civil society organizations in spreading the culture of transparency and accountability as well as the dangers of corruption
- Revitalizing the role of the media in disseminating the culture of anti-corruption
- Terminating the system of closed lists during elections and the system of sectarian quotas
- Promoting the system of accountability and educating citizens about it
- Forbidding political forces and blocs from nominating people for administrative positions
- Protecting the Committee for Public Integrity (CPI), the Board of Supreme Audit (BSA) and the Inspector General's Office (IGO) from the sectarian quotas system and appointing people based on their capability and expertise
- Appointing the right person to the right place
Babil Workshop
On March 24 2008, IF and the Ashtar Center for Journalism Training held a workshop in Babil to disseminate the culture of transparency and anti-corruption. The 25 participants included media representatives, academics, NGO members as well as members of the Babil provincial council. Recommendations included:
- Disseminating the “Access to information” culture in the local media
- Spreading the spirit of cooperation between the media and the NGOs to pursue the legislation of the Access to Information Law
- Revising the laws and the monitoring systems of all institution’s financial systems to ensure transparency
- Educating about the “Access to Information” concept through various media outlet
- Involving judges, lawyers and academics in spreading the transparency and anti-corruption culture
- Educating the media through training workshops about information laws, the copyright protection laws and the access to information laws at the constitutional and legal procedures level
- Educating about the concept of transparency and enhancing the relationship between provincial councils and the public in general
- Submitting annual reports to the CPI and the IGO and publishing them in various media outlets
- Honoring employees with a reputation of integrity and paying tribute to them in the media
- Holding conferences between politicians and administration representatives and the media, and calling for the enactment of the journalistic work law.
Last Update:
Monday, May 19, 2008
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