The UNCAC Coalition (of which Transparency International Anti-corruption Center is a member) Coordination Committee met last week in Vienna and selected its first Chair Professor Slagjana Taseva. Professor Taseva is Chair of Transparency International Macedonia. She is also a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the International Anticorruption Academy in Laxenburg, Austria and since 2007 has headed the Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) delegation for the Republic of Macedonia. Professor Taseva specializes in measures against money-laundering, corruption and organized crime.

At the same time, the Coalition announced the selection of two Vice Chairs of the Coalition Coordination Committee, namely Gladwell Otieno Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Open Governance based in Kenya; and Vincent Lazatin Executive Director of the Transparency and Accountability Network in the Philippines.

These appointments were announced on Wednesday 5 July 2011 at a meeting jointly organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Government of Morocco entitled "On the Road to Marrakesh: The role of civil society in fighting corruption." That meeting was designed to prepare for the 4th Conference of States Parties of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which will take place on 24 - 28 October 2011 in Marrakesh Morocco hosted by the Government of Morocco.

The UNCAC Coalition, composed of over 350 members, including over 310 civil society organizations, continues to call for an open and transparent UNCAC review process and looks forward to participation at the forthcoming anticorruption summit in Marrakesh in October. It plans to present there a set of proposals and recommendations.