The inauguration of the Global Expert Group Meeting (EGM) was held this morning at the ‘Taj Samudra’ in Colombo, Sri Lanka with His Excellency, Maithripala Sirisena, the President of Sri Lanka as the Chief Guest. Delivering the opening address, His Excellency stated that as power and corruption go hand in hand, a country needs a strong political will in addition to law reform and effective institutions to fight corruption.

Anti-corruption experts from 30 countries will hold discussions over the next 3 days to adopt the Colombo Commentary on the Jakarta Principles aimed at assisting UNCAC member states to effectively implement these Principles in order to strengthen the independence of national anti-corruption authorities. The sessions of the first day saw current and former members of national anti-corruption authorities from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Ukraine, Nigeria, Tunisia, Slovenia and Peru sharing their experiences of establishing effective and independent national anti-corruption authorities.