The Independent Commission Against Corruption is placing corruption prevention at the centre of its work, with Acting Commissioner (AC) Retired Judge Don Sawong and Acting Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Thomas Eluh highlighting the importance of strong systems, ethical decision-making and proactive governance. 

Addressing provincial leaders during the third Commissioners’ Regional Breakfast, ADC Eluh explained that the ICAC’s approach is built on prevention before enforcement. 

“The role of the ICAC is both proactive and reactive,” ADC Eluh said. 

“Our proactive mandate focuses on prevention, education and awareness, while our reactive mandate is centred on enforcement.” 

He said the Commission’s prevention efforts are centred on engagement, awareness and education, communication, research and policy development to help institutions identify vulnerabilities before corruption occurs. 

AC Sawong echoed the importance of prevention, describing it as the first and most important pillar of the ICAC’s mandate. 

“Good prevention is not about catching people after the money is gone. It is about designing systems so that the opportunity to misuse public resources is reduced in the first place,” he said. 

The Acting Commissioner encouraged leaders to strengthen procurement systems, internal controls, reporting mechanisms and governance processes within their administrations. 

Meanwhile, AC Sawong also highlighted the importance of ethical leadership and decision-making, encouraging public servants to assess their decisions against a simple set of questions: 

• Is it lawful? 

• Is it fair? 

• Is it transparent? 

• Can it be justified publicly? 

• Would you be comfortable seeing it on the front page of a newspaper? 

He stressed that awareness initiatives should ultimately change behaviour and workplace culture rather than simply improve attendance at training programs. 

Both leaders stressed that strong systems alone are not enough. 

“Systems do not operate by themselves. They operate through people entrusted public officials like you,” he said. 

ADC Eluh added that successful prevention depends on strong partnerships and cooperation between the ICAC and public institutions. 

“These initiatives cannot be carried out in isolation,” he said.