The World Bank deplored on Tuesday that on the eve of anti-corruption day on Thursday, and a year after 100 countries signed the UN treaty on the fight against corruption, only 14 countries have ratified the text.
Daniel Kaufman, World Bank program director said: – Only 14 countries have ratified this text and they are all emerging or poor economies. Not a single rich country has ratified the convention.
The convention needs the ratification (statsretlige undertegnelse) of 30 countries in order to be implemented and become international law.
According to the World Bank, corruption costs the global economy about 1.000 billion US dollar each year, not to mention the losses in investment, and the delays this causes in the development of poor countries.
Kaufman reminded that the World Bank, which has been fighting the corruption plague since 1996, is the only international organization to publish a list of companies forbidden from obtaining contracts due to acts of corruption under previous bank contracts. Some companies sanctions run for a few years, and some permanently.
One of the latest companies to be listed is a subsidiary of the French aeronautics and defense group Thales, after the discovery that it was involved in a case of corruption on a public market in Cambodia.
This black list of more than 200 companies and individuals is published on the World Banks website and constitutes an important source of information for NGOs and investors, according to Kaufman.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
