PRESS STATEMENT 24/10

26th March 2010

The Government of the Republic of Nauru has described the Cairns Compact Peer Review process as “a very useful exercise to ensure transparency and accountability within the government.”

“The process cannot be seen as intruding into the sovereignty of another country as I believe it helps us see where we are going. It is a self-assessment looking at what we are doing and what we could do to improve our planning and budgetary processes,” Michael Cain, Nauru’s Acting Chief Secretary said after meeting with the Peer Review team which has been meeting with government agencies and other stakeholders this week.

“We as a government want to be transparent and accountable as we receive a lot of assistance from development partners and in order to continue to benefit from the valuable assistance - the government ought to show it is performing,” said Mr Cain.

He added: “We found the meeting with the Peer Review team members very valuable because we were able to identify certain areas that we need to improve on and the team was able to suggest ways that this could be done.”

“Overall the Peer Review process is essential if the government wants to remain accountable and transparent not only to the development partners but to the people of the country,” Mr Cain concluded.

Nauru is the first country that volunteered to be peer reviewed under the Cairns Compact since it was endorsed by Forum Leaders at their meeting in August last year. The Peer Review is one of the deliverables of the Compact. Nauru has chosen the Cook Islands and Tonga as the two Forum Island countries to do the peer review and the United Nations Development Programme to represent the development partners in the process.

The Peer Review team ends its consultations today with a briefing on preliminary findings to stakeholders and is scheduled to produce a draft report in two weeks. The Government of Nauru will comment on the report before it is finalised for the Forum Leaders when they meet later this year.

(Ends)