Regional Forum on "Supporting the Governance Units for Better Control, Monitoring and Governance in the Public Sector’’

Tunisia - Thursday, April 18, 2019

On Thursday 18 April 2019, the High Authority for Administrative and Financial Control at the Presidency of the Tunisian Republic in cooperation with the ‘’Arab Anti-Corruption and Integrity Network’’ and supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), organized a regional forum on "Supporting the Governance Units for Better Control, Monitoring and Governance in the Public Sector’’ in the capital Tunis.

The regional forum brought together around 100 participants responsible for the functions of governance, monitoring, auditing, inspection, and management oversight at ministries, governorates, municipalities, public administrations and institutions in the Republic of Tunisia; as well as representatives of the High Authority for Administrative and Financial Control, the Presidency of the Government and the National Anti-Corruption Commission (INLUCC). Moreover, regional and international officials were also present representing the Anti-Corruption Authority in the State of Kuwait (Nazaha), the Administrative Control Authority of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Prevention of Corruption Unit at the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the UNDP and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The forum held several presentations and in-depth discussions on the experience of the governance units in the Tunisian Republic since their establishment in 2012.The participants discussed the good practices and the challenges facing this experience and developed their solutions through three working groups that dealt with ‘’the Role of the Governance Units in Supporting Oversight Tasks and Following-up on the Proposed Recommendations’’ (Group 1), "Professional and Conduct Reference of Governance Units’’ (Group 2), and "Complementarity Between Governance Unit and Other Units" (Group 3).

The regional forum ended with several recommendations that would contribute to the development of the Tunisian experience and transfer it to other countries. Most importantly it was recommended to develop in a participatory approach and in coordination with the presidency of the government a guide to support the work of the governance units and their integration with monitoring, auditing and inspection units followed by periodic consultations to be studied and approved by the concerned authorities, to be accompanied by a training program on the content of the guide and recommendations for the development of the legal and regulatory framework for governance units in general.