THE National Anticorruption Strategy (NACS) document has been dubbed history in the making.

Leader of the Official Opposition Hon Jeremiah Manele made the statement in Parliament when contributing to the motion on the strategy.

According to Manele, the document contains information that sets out the processes through which corruption is to be tackled or addressed in the country.

“It is also history because this Parliament will for the first time take a step towards fulfilling the wish of many Solomon Islanders to seriously address the scourge of corruption,” said Hon Jeremiah Manele.

Manele then added that the Parliamentary Opposition Group welcomes this Strategy and the accompanying Action Plan to begin to address corruption issues in the country in a more coordinated manner and including through appropriate legislations.

“Mr Speaker, generally speaking, corruption can be defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs,” he said.

Grand corruption consists of acts committed at a high level of government that distort policies or the central functioning of the state, enabling leaders to benefit at the expense of the public good.

Petty corruption refers to everyday abuse of entrusted power by low and middle level public officials in their interactions with ordinary citizens, who often are trying to access basic goods or services in places like hospitals, schools, police departments and other agencies.

Manele then further defined that political corruption is a manipulation of policies, institutions and rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political decision makers, who abuse their position to sustain their power, status, and wealth.

The Leader of the Official Opposition then added that corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies including Solomon Islands.

He further added that it undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish.