‘Jordan has political will to fight graft, improve int’l ranking’

AMMAN — Jordan is capable of improving its ranking in global transparency indexes as it has the political will to fight corruption, supported by the needed infrastructure, an international expert said Saturday.

Speaking at the 10th Government Leaders Forum in Amman, Transparency International Managing Director Cobus de Swardt said the Kingdom’s “relatively small” population and “good” coordination between ministries can enable it to improve transparency, despite challenges in security and population due to the refugee crisis.

During meetings with Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour and a number of officials over the past few days, De Swardt was briefed on the political reform process in the Kingdom, as well as efforts to improve the quality of health and education services, and on developing and improving the role of women in public life.

In several meetings with leaders of private and public institutions as well as civil society organisations over the past three days, De Swardt said he noticed a common “strong” willingness among all sectors to move ahead in reform and to strive for the Kingdom to become a regional leader in transparency.

However, he said the country still has aspects it can work on to achieve higher transparency rates.

While prevention is a key anti-corruption effort, providing anti-corruption entities with “better” resources is as important, especially those with investigative powers, according to the expert.

De Swardt noted that the government can enhance public trust in anti-corruption entities and their independence by assigning individuals who already possess the public’s esteem and trust to anti-corruption positions. 

This move would go hand-in-hand with reaching out to civil society organisations as partners, rather than threats — a matter His Majesty King Abdullah’s fifth Royal Discussion Paper emphasised, the Transparency International director said.

De Swardt encouraged the government to further open channels with the public. 

“It is secrecy that enables corruption,” he said, suggesting that openness can be achieved by encouraging asset declarations of public sector employees at the beginning and the end of their service, as well as throughout their term.

Another point would be to build an environment of integrity through closing legal and administrative loopholes, especially those concerning public funds where most transparency speculations occur.     

Furthermore, developing an advanced system of classification for official documents regarding secrecy could enhance openness, especially in areas of procurements, according to the expert, who described openness as a “major game changer in public trust”.

De Swardt concluded by citing corruption as a global issue that is affected by international systems. “However, Jordan should push its own indigenous solutions for such an issue.”

Minister of Public Sector Development Khleef Al Khawaldeh said the forum, held in cooperation with the Jordanian Integrity and Transparency Coalition “Rasheed”, aims at exchanging knowledge and experiences among public sector leaders and keeping them updated with recent developments in the field of public administration.

“This meeting is part of the government’s efforts to enhance Jordan’s rank in international indicators, especially those related to transparency, openness and anti-corruption,” he told an audience of senior officials.

The minister said international indicators are “very important to policy and decision making” as they evaluate the current situation in various fields and illustrate the impact of adopted policies and decisions.

“They are also considered a main reference point for donors to determine which countries should be a target for investments, donations, grants, loans, and international relations and cooperation,” he added.

Khawaldeh indicated that the ministry will release a report analysing the main international rankings of governments and Jordan’s performance in these indices in the first quarter of 2016, with the goal of enabling public departments to benefit from and follow up on content relevant to their work.