FOREWORD
It is my great pleasure and privilege to present this report of the Seventh RegionalSeminar on Good Governance for Southeast Asian Countries, which was held in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia from 3 – 5 December 2013. This was our first opportunity to hold aGood Governance Seminar in Kuala Lumpur, and we were deeply impressed andtouched by the warm hospitality afforded to us by our Malaysian hosts.
The main theme of the Seminar was “Enhancing Investigative Ability in Corruption
Cases”, and it was attended by three speakers from public institutions and thirteeninternational participants — all criminal justice practitioners ȹġ from Cambodia,Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. TheSeminar was organized by UNAFEI, with the support of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission and the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Academy.
As anti-corruption practitioners, the Seminar’s participants were keenly aware ofthe dangers that corruption poses to democracy and the rule of law. In addition to
distorting business activities and competition, corruption also threatens the security ofsocieties and creates environments in which organized crime, terrorism, and other forms
of unlawful activity may prosper. Yet in contrast to the grave and far-reaching threats it
poses, corruption is very difficult to detect because it is ordinarily committed in secretamong a very limited number of parties. As a result, it is a challenge for criminal justiceauthorities to obtain effective leads and to fully develop and investigate them.
Investigative authorities must enhance their investigative abilities in order to punish
these offenders and learn to cope with the concealment of evidence.
To accomplish these aims, investigators must obtain the cooperation of key
witnesses during the investigation and persuade them to testify at trial. It is also
effective to use covert surveillance to secretly record oral statements of suspects andrelated persons, using methods such as lawful wiretapping. Additionally, it is importantfor investigators to master how to track the flow of the proceeds of corruption.
Necessary skills include the analysis of bank statements and related documents,
conducting investigations in cooperation with banks, seizing the proceeds of corruption
and so forth. Moreover, the progress of science and technology has enabled many otherforensic investigations, and investigative authorities must master the newest forensic
investigative methods to combat sophisticated corruption offenders.
The Seventh Regional Seminar explored the legal frameworks and techniques ofanti-corruption investigation in the participating countries. Through discussion of theissues, participants exchanged knowledge, experiences, effective strategies, and bestpractices in the fields of anti-corruption investigation and asset tracing. In addition, theSeminar developed contacts between anti-corruption authorities and investigators inEast Asia and Southeast Asia.
It is my pleasure to publish this Report of the Seminar as part of UNAFEI’s mission,
entrusted to it by the United Nations, to widely disseminate meaningful information oncriminal justice policy.

Finally, on behalf of UNAFEI I would like to express my sincere appreciation to theMalaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Academy for
their great contributions to convening the Seventh Regional Seminar.

Tomoko AKANE
Director, UNAFEI
October 2014