Intervention of the High Authority during the 2nd Franco-Tunisian days against corruption
On 4 and 5 April, the Tunisian National instance against corruption (INLUCC) organized, with the support of the French embassy, the French institute and the French development agency, the second Franco-Tunisian days against corruption, which aim at strengthening cooperation between both countries on this matter and at offering a platform for dialogue of actors from both sides of the Mediterranean.
The 2017 edition focused on the role of international cooperation in the detection and prosecution of cases of corruption. Most roundtables gathered speakers from Tunisia and France in order to present the methods implemented by counterpart institutions: the French anticorruption agency and the INLUCC, TRACFIN and the Tunisian Commission for financial analyses, the High Authority and the Tunisian Government legislative service. Indeed, Tunisia is currently reforming its asset declarations system, by creating for instance an automatic control of Members of Parliament’s asset declaration, and a control at the discretion of the Instance for civil servants. In case of non-submission from a civil servant, the sanction provided for is a deduction from wage until the declaration is submitted. In France, non-submission of a declaration to the High Authority is a criminal offence.
Jeanne Dominjon, Studies and partnerships officer, represented the High Authority, and described the means of monitoring of the asset declarations, which allow to detect diverse criminal offences : the ones that were created by the Laws of 11 October 2013 (substantial omission or under-estimation of assets) but also other probity offences : corruption, bribery, embezzlement, etc.
The discussions allowed to mention a few ideas to strengthen cooperation, which is essential in the fight against corruption, whether between actors from a given country, both public authorities and civil society organizations, or between foreign institutions, grand corruption often having international ramifications. Therefore, information exchange between jurisdictions and between foreign administrations, notably financial ones, were emphasized.