Strengthening Legal Framework for Corruption Fight (TN0001)

Drafting a set of laws related to corruption fight:
- A law related to the protection of Whistleblowers in the public sector:
- A law related to assets declaration by high government officials:
- A law on illicit enrichment:
This law aims at establishing mechanisms to report corruption cases, and setting up special measures to protect whistleblowers that witness corruption cases within the public sector. The law will sustain the effort of fighting the phenomenon of corruption that threatens public resources, and will reduce its effects at different levels of the government, including central and local level and all structures involved in public services delivery.
This law aims to determine the list of high government officials and who are obliged to disclose their assets declaration in accordance to specific procedures and after defining the control mechanism and the applied sanctions. This would replace the law n° 1987-17 of April 10th, 1987, related to government member’s declaration of honor, and all related legislation.
This law aims at defining illicit enrichment of public officials, their spouses or children. And so, with the addition of expenses that are made by or for the benefit of any persons involved in illicit enrichment.
Once these laws are formulated and approved by the government, they are directly forwarded to
the chamber of deputies.

1: Strengthen legal framework for anticorruption

Commitment Text: Drafting a set of laws related to corruption fight:

•       A law related to the protection of Whistleblowers in the public sector:

This law aims at establishing mechanisms to report corruption cases, and setting up special measures to protect whistleblowers that witness corruption cases within the public sector. The law will sustain the effort of fighting the phenomenon of corruption that threatens public resources, and will reduce its effects at different levels of the government, including central and local level and all structures involved in public services delivery.

•       A law related to Asset Disclosure:

This law aims to define the list of high government officials and who are obliged to disclose their assets declaration in accordance to specific procedures and after defining the control mechanism and the applied sanctions. This will replace the law n∞1987 dated of17 of April 10th, 1987, related to declaration of honor by government members and high level officials of assets, and all related legislation.

•       A law on illicit enrichment:

This law aims at defining illicit enrichment of public officials, their spouses or children. And so, with the addition of expenses that are made by or for the benefit of any persons involved in illicit enrichment.

Once these laws are formulated and approved by the government, they are directly forwarded to the chamber of deputies.

Responsible Institution(s): The Secretariat of State in Charge of Governance and Civil Service

Supporting Institution(s): The Ministry of Justice, The Committee of Governance and Corruption Fight, the Chamber of Deputies, the Legal Advisor

Start Date: July 2014 End Date: June 2016

Commitment aim

This commitment set out to draft three key pieces of legislation to comply with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). They were to focus on three anti-corruption themes: whistleblower protection, asset disclosure, and illicit enrichment. The areas of concern identified by the draft laws had been studied extensively by international partners, such as OECD and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and were discussed with civil society in multiple forums. According to a 2014 OECD report on asset declaration and integrity in public administration, Tunisia’s legal framework is considered below international standards.^{[Note 1: OECD, “Renforcer l’Intégrité en Tunisie: L’Élaboration de Normes pour les Agents Publics et le Renforcement du Sysèème de Déclaration de Patrimoine,” 2014, http://bit.ly/1KbT6N9.]}

Status

Midterm: Limited

In March 2015, the General Manager of the Governance Unit at the Presidency of the Government announced that a commission involving several ministries had prepared three anti-corruption draft laws: one concerning whistleblowers protection, another concerning illicit enrichment, and a third concerning government officials’ asset disclosures. As of 3 September 2015, the draft laws were available on a UNDP-sponsored website.^{[Note 2: Government of Tunisia, Draft Whistleblowers Protection Law, 3 September 2015, http://bit.ly/1OpsdqH; Government of Tunisia, Draft Asset Disclosure Law, 3 September 2015, http://bit.ly/1TTfgZY; Government of Tunisia, Draft Illicit Enrichment Law, 3 September 2015, http://bit.ly/1RAOms.]} No timeline was given for official publication, for a comment period, or for when the draft laws would be forwarded to the Chamber of Deputies. For more information, please see the 2014-2015 IRM Midterm Progress Report.

End of term: Limited

According to the government,^{[Note 3: Interview with OGP focal point team members, Rim Garnaoui and Chiraz Ben Tahar, 9 September 2016.]} the draft law on whistleblower protection was approved by the Council of Ministers on 14 June 2016, and submitted to Parliament on 16 June 2016.^{[Note 4: Government of Tunisia, Draft law on whistleblowers protection submitted to Parliament, http://www.arp.tn/site/projet/AR/fiche_proj.jsp?cp=94610.]} Discussions within the Commission of Rights, Freedom, and External Relations began on 15 November 2016, and are ongoing, albeit delayed.^{[Note 5: Commision on Rights and Freedoms and Foreign Relations, 8 February 2017, http://majles.marsad.tn/2014/chroniques/589b0b88cf441237ac61edf6.]} A member of the National Instance of the Fight Against Corruption (Mrs. Najet Basha) explained the delay in terms of resistance within the public administration, as well as some officials’ fears of being harassed and/or punished if they advocated for the advancement of the legislation. On 16 November 2016, the main anti-corruption watchdog in Tunisia (I-Watch) presented its recommendations regarding the law.^{[Note 6: I Watch: propositions pour la protection des lanceurs d’alerte, 16 November 2016, http://bit.ly/2rmW3Iu. ]} These included a proposal to incorporate whistleblower protection within the private sector.^{[Note 7: Achref Aouadi, Interview given on radio Mosaique FM website, http://www.mosaiquefm.net/fr/actualite-national-tunisie/51066/i-watch-propositions-pour-la-protection-des-lanceurs-d-alerte.html#volume.]}

The law on illicit enrichment was submitted to Parliament on 31 December 2015.^{[Note 8: Tunisian Repository of Laws “Marsad Majles”:  Proposal for Organic Law N 83/2015 on Transparecy and the Fight Against Illicit Enrichment. Accessed 26 May 2017.}

 http://majles.marsad.tn/2014/fr/lois/56d6c9de12bdaa76dc89cf9b.] The government reported that it had held a technical meeting in March 2016 to discuss the integration of the two draft laws on asset disclosure and illicit enrichment.^{[Note 9: Government of Tunisia, Self Assessment Report 2016]} However, there has been no further progress on the commitment.

Did it open government?­­

Access to information: Did not change

Public accountability: Did not change

Corruption was seen as the main cause of the 2011 revolution in Tunisia, so strengthening anti-corruption legislation remained a priority for civil society. Civil society organisations, such as I-Watch and OpenGov, emphasised the critical importance of these laws for fighting impunity and financial misappropriation in Tunisia. Abdelhamid Jarmouni from OpenGov, an independent group that has been working on open government and open data in Tunisia since November 2011, believes this commitment could fill the legal gap in reinforcing whistleblower and transparency tools.

Since none of the laws were passed, this commitment did not lead to any changes in access to information or public accountability.

Carried forward?

This commitment was not carried forward to the second action plan. As these laws are critical to the fight against corruption, the IRM researcher suggests taking the necessary steps to pass them, including holding a public consultation with civil society and anti-corruption experts during the discussion of the laws in Parliament.