Whistleblowers are essential to the successful prosecution of corruption cases, said several speakers in workshops held during the annual conference of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities yesterday.

Philippine Department of Justice director of witness protection program Martin T Menez During a workshop on witness protection legislation, Philippine Witness Protection Program director Martin T Menez ( left ) said its program has thus far covered 569 witnesses, of whom 50 testified on corruption cases.

Overall, he said cases involving its witnesses have a 94.74 percent conviction rate last year, and 100 percent for 2012 up to the end of August.

Some of the incentives offered include new identities, financial assistance and immunity from prosecution.

During a separate workshop themed “The Art of Prosecuting Corrupt Practices and Abuse of Power”, an American legal advisor said among the reasons that a prosecution may fail is the failure to cultivate such witnesses.

American Embassy in Malaysia resident legal advisor Kenneth C Kohl US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur resident legal advisor Kenneth C Kohl ( right ) said this is essential because corruption is a clandestine activity, so the chances of a successful prosecution would go down dramatically without “insider witnesses”.

He quoted an unnamed senior prosecutor in his home country telling him, “You know, the Department of Justice in the United States has not made a single case against a high-profile public official in the without the use of accomplice witnesses. We use it all the time.”

Both were addressing some 300 delegates from across the globe in their respective workshops, while a parallel workshop was ongoing in an adjacent ballroom.

'Tainted whistleblowers'

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is hosting the four-day conference at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, which ends today.

MACC deputy director of the Legal and Prosecution Division Anthony Kevin Morais. Meanwhile, several other speakers outlined some of the difficulties of prosecuting corruption cases, including MACC deputy director of the Legal and Prosecution Division Anthony Kevin Morais ( left ) who lamented the lack of verifiable information and independent witnesses.

“Perpetrators, especially of high -level corruption, are often savvy politicians, business people and financiers who understand how to bury the evidence of their misdeeds.

“(They) have the connections and means to call on other professionals such as lawyers, accountants and computer experts, to help execute the deed and launder the proceeds,” he said.

Even if whistleblowers come forth, their testimony is “tainted” because experience had shown that they have come clean for a wide variety of reasons and “not always because of a sense of remorse,” he added.

This was in addition to potential witnesses feeling that existing protections are inadequate to ensure their safety and job security.

Kohl, who spoke after Morais, also pointed out that one of the factors that would cause a case to fall apart is the failure to corroborate its evidence, including whistleblowers’ testimonies, because of the incentives offered for blowing the whistle.

Prosecutor: Be fair to us

Morais also complained that the media and society often fail the realise the “practical realities” of prosecuting a person for corruption, and thus unfairly applied pressure to the prosecutors and accused it of selective prosecution.

IAACA conference “Issues like the lack of cooperation by witnesses, missing witnesses, money trail that have gone cold, staleness of the offence, irretrievable documentation, cost of prosecution, and relevant case laws play a part in the prosecutor’s decision on whether to prosecute or not,” he said.

He said the public would then speculate the reasons behind the non-prosecution, which then affects the public perception of the case and erodes the public confidence in the prosecutor.

Though unable to finish his speech in the approximately 20-minutes allotted, the 28-page text of his speech was distributed to all delegates.

Learn from other units

In one paragraph which he did not have the opportunity to read out, he said the prosecutor should be “given the opportunity to address the media on reasons why prosecution is not forthcoming with certain individuals or on a course of conduct taken during the prosecution of another.”

Morais wrote that attacks continue and fair coverage is not given, to the extent of threatening the integrity of the prosecution and the fairness of the trial, then the prosecutors should seek legal recourse.

Also in the unread portions of this speech, he also urged anti-graft enforcers to take cues from covert techniques used against organised crime, including wire-tapping, sting operations and undercover agents.

Despite casting doubts on whistleblowers earlier, he also urged the authority to grant legal immunity in exchange for their sworn testimonies is a valuable tool for investigators, including “underlings” who had defected over the course of the undercover investigation.

“Why? Because once a participant in a corrupt relationship is usually in a position to provide highly incriminating evidence against other participants, the knowledge that an 'insider' is cooperating with the prosecution is often enough on its own to convince other defendants to plead guilty, thus cracking the corrupt network wide open,” he said.