Anti-corruption in the 100 Day Speech of the Head of the Government of Tunisia

Tunisia - Monday, June 8, 2015

The Head of the Government of Tunisia, Mr. Habib ESSID, presented the achievements of his Government and outlined its future orientations in his speech to the Assembly of the Representatives of the People on 5 June 2015, on the occasion of the first one hundred days after the formation of the Government. In it, he stated that there is no room for normalization or co-existence with corruption or the corrupt in post-revolution Tunisia, underlining his Government’s commitment to move forward in the fight against corruption in all its forms and without any tolerance. He also stated his Government’s key achievements in this regard, which is the series of Bills that were developed in cooperation with all concerned stakeholders. He singled out the support of UNDP in a sign seen by observers as telling of the robust partnership between the two and the added value the UNDP brings to related reform efforts. 

The Bills mentioned by Essid deal with asset disclosure, illicit enrichment and the protection of whistleblowers on corruption in the public sector. They were developed by a governmental team that was composed of specialized representatives from the Ministry of State in charge of Governance and Public Function, the Committee of General Control for Public Services, the Services of the Counselor for Law and Legislation of the Government, the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Transitional Justice, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, and the Court of Accounts.

The team mentioned-above benefited from international standards and comparative experiences provided through UNDP’s “Regional Project on Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries”, which also delivered technical advice over the period of three months in 2014, and organized two expert meetings for the drafting of the legal texts, the first in Gammarth on 20-21 May and the second in Beirut on 2-5 June.

Following these meetings, the Bills underwent extensive internal consultation within the Government, and the Bill on whistleblower protection was submitted to public consultation in events attended by representatives from civil society and concerned official bodies. The public consultative approach will be extended to the two other Bills, which will be presented during a workshop that is expected to take place in Gamarth on 28-29 July 2015, in preparation for the incorporation of the proposed revisions, resulting from the consultations, in the three Bills by the governmental expert team.

The Government of Habib ESSID is the first Government after the parliamentary elections that was held on 26 October 2014, and is the first of its kind after the adoption of the new Constitution of 2014.

The Prime Minister's speech is available in Arabic here.