Kathmandu, October 11:

The House of Representatives today directed the government to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Corruption as soon as possible so that the anti-corruption movement in the country is made more effective.

The House endorsed a proposal tabled by UML MP Parshuram Meghi Gurung in today’s session seeking a directive to the government to ratify the convention. The convention was signed by the Chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Surya Nath Upadhyaya on behalf of the government on December 9, 2003.

Tabling the proposal, Gurung stressed the need to ratify the convention to make all state organs accountable and transparent and to ensure good governance in the financial sector. The proposal also stated that the lack of honesty and ethics is a threat to good governance and the rule of law. MPs Shiva Raj Joshi and Govinda Bahadur Shah said the convention would help combat corruption in the country. Convention Acts should be promulgated once the UN convention is ratified, they said.

The convention allows any member government to have access to a person’s property details in any of the member countries. More than 100 countries are signatories to the UN convention and about 30 countries, including a member of the SAARC, Sri Lanka, have already ratified it. “This is a positive move of the parliament,” Surya Nath Upadhyaya, the CIAA chief said.

“Once the convention is ratified, getting cooperation from other member countries will be easy,” Upadhyaya added. “This shows that the parliament is sincerely committed to combating corruption in the country,” another commissioner of the CIAA, Beda Prasad Siwakoti, said.