Nations urged to back graft accord
Four countries in the so called Group of 20 should stop holding out from an international deal on combating large scale corruption, a top World Bank official said on Tuesday, arguing that the Greek crisis showed graft was a problem for rich nations as well as poor ones.
The World Bank and Switzerland on Tuesday called the G20 countries to act against the “plundering” of poor countries plagued by corruption and encourage the return of assets hidden abroad.
Between 20 and 40 billion US dollar are “stolen” each year to poor countries. According to World Bank estimates this huge amount of money is plundered by corrupt officials, before being laundered hvisvasket) through major financial centres where it finds a safe haven.
20 billion of these looted funds, if found and retur-ned, would pay for 48.000 km of two-lane roads or first-line treatment for 120 million people with HIV/AIDS.
“Much of the money that was stolen found refuge on the internati-onal financial markets” which “contributes to the impoverishment of the poorest countries, they have said at an international forum two days on the subject in Paris.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is leading a joint World Bank-United Nations project on recovering looted state assets, said the global economic turmoil made it even more urgent for cash-strapped countries to work together to stop illicit money flows.
Her comments come amid concerns that, in the absence of a full international agreement, governments will continue to struggle to mount cases to recover the tens of billions of dollars of public funds conservatively estimated to be stolen each year.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala urged Japan, Germany, India and Saudi Arabia to support the UN’s Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) as part of a broader international crackdown on looted money.
– Ratify it, she said, adding that those who had already backed the agreement also needed to do more to implement it.
Leaders of G20 nations are due to meet in Canada at the end of the month to discuss ways of bolstering the global financial system and introducing regulatory reforms.
Speaking alongside Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, the World Bank Group chief said tackling looting must fall to both the public and private sector.
But financial centres such as Switzerland must take the lead in pursuing foreign and domestic corruption cases, she said, conducting thorough due-diligence procedures and detecting the proceeds of corruption.
Calmy-Rey said Switzerland aimed to introduce legislation to seize and return assets that are clearly illicit.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
