Madam President,
Firstly, I wish to congratulate you for your election to preside this important Conference of the United Nations, I assure you that you may count on Cuba´s support to reach a successful conclusion of our works under your leadership.
Our delegation endorses the words spoken by the distinguished Ambassador of Argentina and the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of GRULAC and G 77+ China, respectively.
Madam President,
Cuba reiterates its commitment to the struggle against Corruption in all its manifestations. In this regard, we would like to highlight some measures adopted to fulfill the recommendations received during the review process:
• Permanent updating of the national legislation against corruption and all its international extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties.
• Criminalization of laundering based on the duty of knowing, rational assumption or inexcusable ignorance.
• Inclusion in the “illicit enrichment” of the direct enrichment through intermediary or the increase in the assets of an official or a third party.
• Continuous updating of our bilateral agreements regarding extradition and mutual legal assistance. Although Cuba does not recognize the Convention as a basis for extradition, it is regarded as a positive element that extradition may be requested on the basis of the principles of reciprocity and dual criminality, where no treaty exists.
• Existence of bilateral agreements with a view to facilitate the police and customs cooperation. We stress Cuba´s participation in Interpol and IberRed.
• Country´s integration into GAFISUD.
Madam President,
The inter-institutional coordination evidenced by the existence of a State Control Commission which facilitates the exchange of information on pending cases, has been crucial in the development of the previous described actions.
Cuba has identified some positives practices that I want to share with the other Member States:
• From the reviewed position: making the self-assessment report, some legislative gaps were identified in the substantive and procedural aspects, existing problems and difficulties. A questioning analysis for their possible solution was executed taking into consideration the development of the institutional process undertaken by the country and the legislative reform in harmony with the Cuban economic model updating process. All this makes possible the most effective precisions related to the postulates of the Convention.
• The conducted exchanges, consultations and contributions of the representatives of the Civil Society during the review period had a positive impact and contributed to the information supply and to encourage the knowledge on the review process and its outcomes.
• The development of fast media supported by the new technologies was very useful for information exchange among the reviewed and reviewing parties and the Secretariat.
• The knowledge acquired regarding the implementation mechanism has fostered presentation and exchange of this topic with directors and officials of different countries of the zone. They have attended the second venue courses of the Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS), carried out in Cuba with regard to the best practices and the search for consensus areas among countries which will allow creating regional actions in the future to increase the international cooperation in the prevention and struggle against this scourge.
Madam President,
At this moment, Cuba is involved in the preparatory phase for its second cycle of review which will take place in 2018 and we are equally pledged to its successful development.
To conclude, our delegation reiterates its availability to continue cooperating in the implementation of the Convention against Corruption and its Review Mechanism. We look forward to the fruitful outcomes of this Conference. Furthermore, we wish it will set the lines to follow for the next review cycle.
I thank you very much
(Embacuba Austria / Cubaminrex)