Brunei Keen On Collaborations With UNODC
By Nasroul Hizam

Brunei-Muara - Brunei is looking into possible collaborations with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) especially in exploring areas of technical cooperation.

This was said by the Director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Pg Kasmirhan Pg Hj Tahir, during the one-day seminar "Good Governance: Enhancing Regional and International Cooperation in Crime Prevention and Detection from the Perspective of UNODC" held yesterday at the Civil Service Institute by Senior Regional Legal Advisor of the UNODC, Michel Bonnieu.

During the discussions held at the end of Bonnieu's presentations, the director was open to any possible suggestions for projects in which both Brunei Darussalam and UNODC can work together. On behalf of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Pg Kasmirhan suggested that it could pair up with the UN agency to improve national anti-corruption drives. Looking forward to technical assistance, he added that workshops must be held on asset recovery.

"The corrupt hide money outside the country, which is difficult to detect and poses a problem for law-enforcers," he said.

He expressed particular interest in the Computer Based Training (CBT) which would make training officers more cost effective. "Sending an officer abroad for training costs thousands of dollars," he pointed out how the system can help us train even more people.

Bonnieu mentioned that it is not impossible for the two sides to become partners and be efficient - together, developing Brunei's activities and raising its profile to the outside world. He personally, found the Anti-Corruption Bureau's education programme to be an amazing achievement. With plans to expand the corruption prevention education programme to the university level, the senior legal advisor was greatly impressed and said that it was worth sharing with other countries.

Another aspect of cooperation that Bonnieu voiced out was in putting together experts from all over the region to discuss and produce draft documents and these pilot documents can then be tested in each country.

Conferences and workshops would be an opportunity for the exchanging of views, hold discussions and may discover some best practices.

In an effort to improve the anti-corruption drive, Bonnieu suggested establishment of complaints committee to allow the public to make complaints.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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