The Southeast Asia Parties Against Corruption (SEA-PAC) was established through the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Cooperation for Preventing and Combating Corruption, which was signed by anti-corruption agencies from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore on 15 December 2004. The grouping was initially referred to as the “Memorandum of Understanding Between the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Brunei Darussalam, the Corruption Eradication Commission of the Republic of Indonesia, the Anti-Corruption Agency of Malaysia, and the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau of the Republic of Singapore on Cooperation for Preventing and Combating Corruption”.
During the 3rd Principals Meeting (then known as the 3rd MOU Meeting) in September 2007, it was proposed that the meeting should consider a new name which should reflect the grouping as a regional Southeast Asia anti-corruption entity. In that connection, the use of the word “ASEAN” was considered but dropped as not all ASEAN members were parties to the MOU at that time. There was also concern that the usage of the term “ASEAN” may not be appropriate as the grouping did not have any association with ASEAN. In view of these considerations, the grouping eventually settled on its current name “Southeast Asia Parties Against Corruption (SEA-PAC)”.
On 8 February 2017, SEA-PAC received confirmation and approval on our application to be an Entity Associated with ASEAN from the ASEAN Secretariat. The SEA-PAC is listed in the Annex 2 of the ASEAN Charter under the category “Other Stakeholders”. As an accreditation entity, the SEA-PAC shall enjoy the privileges of and be bound by the obligations for accreditation.
In relation to this, at the 14th Principals Meeting of the SEA-PAC, again it was proposed renaming the SEA-PAC to include the term “ASEAN” to reflect SEA-PAC’s status as an entity associated with the ASEAN, and its membership comprising all ten ASEAN countries. During the 15th Principals Meeting, the Meeting reached a consensus to change the group’s name from “South East Asia Parties Against Corruption (SEA-PAC)” to “ASEAN Parties Against Corruption ASEAN-PAC” to reflect our status as an entity associated with ASEAN and to build closer relationship and stronger commitment to work under auspices of ASEAN to fight corruption.