Fighting corruption imperatively requires the total commitment of all stakeholders as it is not the sole responsibility of the ICAC. In this context, the importance of community leaders to bring this fight to grassroot level of the community was stressed during a workshop held on the 29th July 2010. Community leaders have to be agents of change to educate, sensitize and empower their respective communities to root out this scourge. Creating awareness of the threats corruption represents to society, community leaders have a long term task to educate the communities about making corruption socially and morally unacceptable. To support them in this task, the ICAC has officially launched a comic strip “Pliblik: ki nou role” depicting the role of civil society in the fight against corruption. This booklet has been distributed to the community leaders.

The half day national workshop on the theme “Strengthening Community Vigilance” held at the MCA Lecture Theatre, Réduit  was organized by the ICAC in collaboration with SILWF (Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund) and the SWD (Social Welfare Division) enlisted the participation of about 80 community leaders from around the country. Nine regional workshops will subsequently be organized to assist community leaders in their tasks of disseminating  anti-corruption messages  in their respective communities.

Mr K.Ramgoolam, Commissioner of the Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund (SILWF) addressed the audience by arguing that the community leader should be the change that he or she wants to see in others first and then only can the responsible leader propagate the message of anti-corruption in society.

Addressing the audience, Mrs Domah, Director, Corruption Prevention and Education Division (CPED) praised the collaboration of the ICAC and the SILWF, who have been privileged partners in this relentless fight against corruption since ICAC’s beginnings. She also applauded the presence of many female community leaders whose interest and participation in the workshop did not go unnoticed. Mrs Domah enlisted the support of all people present to fight corruption to make Mauritius an “île durable”. She highlighted that the fight against corruption is not solely ICAC’s, but  is meant to be each individual’s fight, as it is together as a community, that we can create a change towards a clean Mauritius. ICAC’s objective is to reach an even greater number of people through community leaders in order to raise awareness of corruption as an evil which should not be tolerated but has to be reported to the ICAC.

Mrs Vadamootoo, Assistant Director (CPED) in her presentation on “Understanding the fight against corruption and the need to fight corruption at community level” reminded the audience that corruption is a social evil which many countries are fighting against. She pointed out that society suffers as a result of corruption. The participants also had a chance to ponder on the importance of “ethical leadership in the fight against corruption.”