DOHA: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the secretariat for the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), has brushed aside criticism that the involvement of civil societies in the global fight against corruption has been diluted by member-states.

Executive Director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, said told this newspaper on Friday that NGOs will play an active role in member-states in the implementation process involving UNCAC.

He said the NGOs will be consulted before country visits (As per the Convention, two countries will be assigned to visit a third to assess the monitoring of the Convention’s review mechanism).

Asked why it had been decided to publish executive summary of country reports (about a country’s fight against corruption) and not full reports, he said publishing full reports would be a very expensive affair.