THE STATE INSPECTION AUTHORITY OF THE LAO PDR (SIA)
Thongkham Soumaloun *ff

I. OVERVIEWThe State Inspection Authority of the Lao PDR (SIA), which was established on 16
February 1982, is a ministerial level government agency mandated to conduct inspections,prevent and combat corruption, investigate and prosecute corruption-related complaints
within its scope of rights and duties and to supervise such work throughout the country.
The President of the SIA reports directly to the President of the State and is accountable to
the National Assembly.
In the Lao PDR, State Inspection Authorities are not only established at the central levelbut are also incorporated in various levels and sectors. That is, all ministries and ministryequivalent organizations have state inspection and anti-corruption departments, while there
are provincial state inspection and anti-corruption departments as well as in various
provincial sectoral bodies. Each of them has clear mandates and functions within theirscope of responsibilities as provided for by the laws and regulations.
The Lao PDR has a strong legal framework on corruption prevention. Such legislation
includes the Law on Anti-Corruption (ACL), the Law on State Inspection (LSI), theNational Anti-Corruption Strategy, the Law on Civil Servant (LCS), the Decree on the
Thriftiness and Anti-Extravagance, the Decree on the Early Monitoring and Inspecting ofGovernment Investment Projects, the National Saving Policy, the Decree on Declaration ofAssets and Income, Prohibitions for Officials in Financial Sectors and other sector-specificlegislation.
With respect to international cooperation for combating corruption, the Lao PDR,SIA in particular, has endeavoured to fulfil almost all of the provisions stipulated in the
United Nations Convention against Corruption concerning Chapter IV of the Convention.
As a result, the Government of Lao PDR has been working hard to contribute to and realize
the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, target No. 16.5,
which is to substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all forms. The Government’s
effort has seen positive changes in recent years in controlling corruption in vulnerable
areas, e.g. economic and financial sectors, and has been widely welcomed and lauded by
the public, especially in the Government’s decision to build stronger, more accountablepublic administration systems and to render ethical and transparent services with the helpof modern technology, coupled with the implementation of austerity measures imposed by
the Government.
We acknowledge that corruption is a serious problem and is posing threats to thenational stability, socio-economic development and security, undermining public
institutions and leadership, and jeopardizing socio-economic development and the rule oflaw. We are convinced that corruption is no longer a domestic matter but has become*

Senior International Relations Officer, State Inspection Authority, Lao PDR.

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transnational in nature, and we are pushing for more international cooperation. At the sametime, there is the need for States to strengthen international cooperation for combating
corruption, for instance, in investigation, prosecution and eventually in asset recovery.
II. PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION
Lao PDR, as a State party to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption(UNCAC), has always and fully implemented its obligations and requirements under theConvention in the prevention and combating of corruption. Therefore, we have consistently
endeavoured to improve ourselves. One of these improvements in 2021, in accordance with
the Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary
Party, No. 7, is that SIA was declared to be an independent national authority (supporting
Art. 6, 36 of UNCAC) which primarily mandated to conduct inspections, prevent andcombat corruption, investigate corruption cases/complaints within its scope of rights, duties
and to supervise such work throughout the country. The organization previously reported
directly to the Prime Minister but now reports to the President of the State. This
reconstruction marks a significant stepping stone for future institution building and laying
foundations for other improvements such as in terms of management mechanisms,
legislation, mandates and power, human and financial resources as well as operational
independence.
− In general, various levels of government bodies have improved the system of public
administration and services in order to prevent the leakage of revenue, limit andclose organizational deficiencies in the administration, especially in areas
vulnerable to corruption, such as the financial sector. Such improvements are madepossible by the use of technologies including e-government, e-banking etc., which
contribute to the better governance, transparency, reduction of corruption andaccountability.
− In terms of building integrity and combating corruption, every year public officials,
soldiers, police officers and all citizens have participated actively and regularly invarious awareness-raising programmes. For instance, from 2019-2020, Party
Committees, Administration Authorities and Inspection Committees at each levelrolled out up to 153 public anti-corruption education campaigns to enhanceawareness and understanding of the consequences and dangers of corruption. The
campaigns were participated in by more than 349,869 people. Specifically, SIA in
partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports has completed developing
integrity education for all levels of schools and anti-corruption curriculum to be
used to train students and public officials in higher educational institutions. The
curriculum, which has been taught since 2018, can be adjusted based on the actual
needs of each institution and target group. Apart from that, more than 330
dissemination programmes have been broadcast via television and radio, 252
newspaper articles issued and 5 issues of Inspection Magazine with 26,025 copies
have been distributed. In addition, the SIA and Ministry of Health have recently
concluded their joint initiative on “Anti-Corruption Awareness Campaign in Health
Sector” designed to deter corruption during the Covid-19 pandemic. The campaign
involved a series of activities undertaken at various institutions, and more than
1,000 people from the public and private sectors (via Lao National Chamber of- 90 -- 92 -

Industry and Commerce) and tertiary educational institutes participated. The
programme had been run with the support of the UNODC in Vientiane, Lao PDR.
− The Anti-Corruption Law sets out a number of prohibitions. For example, public
officials are strictly prohibited from the abuse of power, duties and rights in all
forms for personal gains, for family or relatives and so on (Art. 27 of AntiCorruption Law) to deter and avoid any possible conflicts of interest in theperformance of official duties by all public officials.
− In line with the Decree on Asset and Income Declaration, the government officers
have to declare their assets and income every two years once they have been
recruited as permanent civil servants and when they leave office or upon beingtransferred to other posts. Since the Decree was enacted in 2013, Laos hascompleted two rounds of asset declarations and as of 2020, departments in charge
are in the process of preparing for the third round of asset declaration. The
declarations are currently accessible only to law enforcement authorities forinvestigative purposes. The subjects of asset declaration include all levels of public
officials, whereas the objects of declaration include, among others, land, houses,
inheritance, vehicles, industrial machinery, precious metals/stones, bonds, gold,
shares, payable debts and receivable debts, valued from 20 million LAK and above(approximately 2,000 USD) or 5 million Kip (approx. US$ 500) for gifts. Objectsof declaration also include salary and other income.
III. INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION
To deal with corruption cases, the power to open or close corruption investigations islegally within the discretion and consideration of the President of the SIA once theinvestigators or taskforce teams have collected information/evidence and reported to him.
In practice, when a corruption allegation emerges or when there is a claim or complaint
related to corruption reported to the SIA, the SIA President shall appoint a taskforce team
to investigate it, upon which if sufficient evidence of a corruption offence is found, withdamages amounting to 5 million LAK and above, the SIA shall finalize the investigation
findings and submit the case to the Prosecutor’s Office for prosecution.
IV. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION FOR COMBATING CORRUPTION
The Lao PDR, through the SIA, has endeavoured to strengthen its anti-corruption
capability. One way of doing so is to promote and engage in bilateral and multilateralagreements; in other words, to enter into regional and international anti-corruption
cooperation. The principal aim is to exchange views, share challenges and best practices,and seek technical assistance and funding in anti-corruption areas. Thus, through its pastand present administrations, the Lao PDR has made some progress in international
cooperation for combating corruption as follows:− The Lao PDR has enacted the Law on Extradition in 2012. The Lao People’s
Democratic Republic, at the time of ratification of UNCAC, declared that it makes
extradition conditional on the existence of a treaty and bilateral agreements –meaning that it does not consider the Convention as the legal basis for extradition.
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However, extradition may be carried out in the absence of bilateral or multilateralagreements on the basis of reciprocity. In accordance with Article 44, paragraph 18of the Convention, the Lao PDR has so far concluded extradition agreements with
6 countries, namely Viet Nam, China, Cambodia, Thailand, North Korea andRussia.
− Consultation before refusing extradition, although it is not specified in the law, but
in accordance with the Extradition Guide (2018), the Lao PDR (Office of theSupreme People’s Prosecutor) is obliged to notify the results of extradition
proceedings or punishment on a regular basis to the requesting State without request
or on a voluntary basis to maintain sound cooperation with the requesting States aswell as to be in line with its obligations as specified in the international treaty.
− Article 32 of the Extradition Law states that the management organs for extradition
include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Security, Office of theSupreme People’s Prosecutor, People’s Supreme Court, Ministry of Justice andLocal Administration authorities. Of those, the Supreme People’s Prosecutor is theCentral Authority for extradition.
A. Mutual Legal Assistance (Art. 46)− The National Assembly of the Lao PDR adopted the Law on International
Cooperation in Criminal Matters. This newly endorsed law defines principles,
regulations and measures concerning mutual legal assistance (MLA) in criminal
matters, and it identified the procedures, requests and documents required. It also
provides detailed areas for MLA cooperation and the contents and formats ofrequests that are acceptable to the Lao PDR. The MLA requests and all supporting
documents must be translated into the Lao language or other languages as specified
in the treaty. An interesting point to note is that there are 10 reasons that lead to
MLA request refusal. One of these is that if the requesting State did not specify thedetails and objectives as to how the information or assistance sought shall be used.
− The Lao PDR has signed three bilateral treaties in civil and criminal matters with
the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, the People’s Republic of China, the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea and is a party to the ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal
Assistance in Criminal Matters.
− According to the Law on International Cooperation in Criminal Matters, the Central
Authority for MLA for the Lao PDR is the Office of Supreme People’s Prosecutor.
Other related organizations include the Ministry of Public Security, the People’s
Supreme Court, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and Local
Administration authorities. Internally, there are inter-agency coordination andcooperation mechanisms among competent authorities for MLA.
B. Law Enforcement Cooperation (Art. 48)
The Lao PDR became a member of the ASEAN Parties Against Corruption or ASEANPAC on Preventing and Combating Corruption in 2010. To further strengthen law
enforcement cooperation, Laos has concluded 5 anti-corruption agreements with its
neighbouring countries, including Viet Nam, China, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.
Recently, another so-called trilateral cooperation mechanism has been established between- 92 -- 94 -

the Lao PDR, Cambodia and Thailand. The purpose of this cooperation mechanism is to
jointly address cross-border crimes that relate to corruption along their shared borders, suchas illegal logging, bribery, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons, wildlife andmoney-laundering. So far, two discussion and consultative meetings have been held, whichwere participated in by a number of local anti-corruption law enforcement officials.
C. Asset Recovery (Arts. 51, 56 and 59)− The Law on Extradition, Law on International Cooperation in Criminal Matters,
including bilateral or multilateral treaties, and some provisions of UNCAC, havebeen the basis for the Lao PDR in the execution of extradition and MLA requests.
The return of assets is specified in Article 26 of the extradition law. There is also
the ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, to which the
Lao PDR is a party.
− MLA may also be granted in the absence of bilateral agreements or treaties basedon the condition of reciprocity (Art 271, Criminal Procedure Law).
D. Prevention and Detection of Transfers of Proceeds of Crime; Financial
Intelligence Unit (Arts. 52 and 58)− The Law on Anti-Money-Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism(AML/CFT) provides, in Arts 18 and 21-32, details of the obligation of reporting
entities to implement Know Your Customer (verification of customer identities andidentification of beneficial ownership). Enhancing customer due diligence isrequired for politically exposed persons (PEPs), their immediate family members
and associates.
− The AML/CFT law also specifies in Art 28 that the customer information be
maintained for 10 years and 5 years for transaction records.
− Under AML/CFT law, no natural, legal persons or organizations shall be allowed
to open or use an “anonymous account”, nor have dealings with banks that associate
and make transactions with shell banks.
Article 361 of the Law on Civil Procedure allows individuals, organizations orenterprises in foreign countries to file claims against persons in the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic in accordance with relevant international cooperation treaties or, in
the absence of such treaties, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Criminal
Procedure Law protects the rights of victims to present evidence and file petitions andaffords civil plaintiffs the same rights in criminal proceedings as victims (arts. 67 and 68).
These measures can also be applied to foreign States.
E. Return and Disposal of Assets (Art. 57)
The National Coordination Committee for Anti-Money-Laundering and Countering the
Financing of Terrorism Guideline No. 08/NCC recognizes the claims of legitimate owners
over assets that are seized, frozen or confiscated (art. 6).
Art. 30 of the Law on International Cooperation in Criminal Matters No.88/NA
provides detailed procedures to return assets or properties to the requesting State. That is,- 93 -- 95 -

after the provincial court has considered that the confiscated assets be returned to therequesting State, the Central Authority (Office of People’s Prosecutor) together with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall prepare and hand over those assets within 30 days or as
specified in the treaty, after the court makes its decision and the judgment becomes final.
Although in the past few years, there have not been any cases of request for mutual
legal assistance for the purpose of identification, tracing, freezing, seizure, confiscation or
recovery of proceeds of corruption from the Southeast Asia region, nor from other regions,
Laos has never refused a request for MLA from a requesting State.

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