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Manama: A proposal by the Bahraini parliament to set up an anti-corruption commission has been rejected by the government which insists such a body would lead to duplication of work and avoidable financial obligations.
The government instead proposed amendments to widen the scope of current laws to address such cases.
"We have laws, such as in the Penal Law, that criminalise cases of corruption, bribery, abuse of power, theft, money laundering, professional misbehaviour," the government said in a letter addressed to the Council of Representatives published in Al Watan newspaper
"We also have authorities and commissions that address most cases of corruption and mismanagement, such as the Audit Bureau, the Tender Council and the Civil Service Bureau," the letter stated.
The government, admitting there were grey areas in the law in the context of certain corruption cases, highlighted the scope for amendments. "There is no pressing need to set up a special anti-corruption commission and we should disregard it for the time being in order to avoid the duplication of laws and work, clashes of prerogatives and new financial burdens generated by the establishment and the running of the commission," it said in the letter.
Call to reword draft
The government also called for the draft presented by the MPs to be reworded and said it was based on the United Nations Convention against Corruption that Bahrain signed on February 8, 2005, but has never ratified.
"The text of the draft is linked with the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption which Bahrain has not ratified, which means that the draft should be reviewed until Bahrain ratifies the UN convention," it said.
The lower house of the bicameral parliament had called for the establishment of an anti-corruption commission that would address all graft cases in Bahrain.
Bahrain last month was ranked 43rd in the Corruption Perception Index in the annual survey by the Berlin-based Transparency International.
In September 2007, Crown Prince Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa announced a campaign to combat corruption and bring offenders in high places to justice.
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