7 - 13 June 2001
Issue No.537
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 7 - 13 June 2001 Issue No.537 |
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Spoils of corruption
An anti-corruption forum attended by governments of more than 100 countries was nothing but a talking shop, Khaled Dawoud reports from The Hague
Four days of debate among officials responsible for fighting corruption in 110 countries ended on 31 May with open exchanges between representatives of the poor South and the rich North on who is most to blame for this widespread phenomenon.
The government officials attending the second Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity produced a lengthy 14-page final declaration which included numerous recommendations on how to fight corruption on both the national and the international levels.
Yet most observers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who attended the forum agreed that the final statement fell far short of their expectations. The ministers failed to agree on so-called "blocks" (paragraphs) to be included in a hoped-for United Nations anti-corruption convention. This was deferred to an upcoming meeting of experts, to be held in Vienna later in the year. But in the final declaration they emphasised the importance of elaborating "an effective international legal instrument against corruption."
Differences prevailed between developing and developed countries on a proposed "monitoring mechanism" of corrupt practices on the local level. Developing nations refused any monitoring that could be interpreted as a violation of their sovereignty. They also questioned who would carry out the monitoring and where the recommendations would go.
Miria Matembe, Ugandan minister for ethics and integrity (the only ministry of its kind worldwide), was vocal in expressing her reservations on the way developed nations in the North approach corruption in Third World countries. "We want to use this forum to monitor you [countries in the North] as much as you want to monitor us," Matembe said amid applause from developing countries' delegates and NGOs. "Why is it so difficult for developing countries to repatriate the money stolen by corrupt officials and kept in their banks? We want our money back," she demanded.
Countries such as Switzerland and the United States are known to be safe-havens for secret accounts of former dictators and corrupt officials in Third World countries. Yet these countries, which are spearheading the call to fight corruption, have done little to deal seriously with this issue. Host country the Netherlands was nearly the only European nation which openly supported the demand of repatriating shady money held in Western banks.
Matembe said that countries like Uganda -- which has been listed as one of the most corrupt by Transparency International (TI), an independent NGO -- are not against monitoring of their commitment to anti-corruption policies. However, she pointed out, "We have to monitor not with an attitude of finger-pointing, blaming or condemnation, but to assist us to move forward." She added: "The main beneficiaries of the monitoring process should not be the foreign media of other countries, but our own nations."
Matembe also lashed out at TI, complaining that its rating Uganda as 11th most corrupt country "scared investors away and added to our problems rather than helping us." To add insult to injury, "No TI delegation came to visit me in my office, or discussed the methods they used in measuring corruption."
Maj General Hetler Tantawi, director of the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) and head of Egypt's delegation to the forum, told Al-Ahram Weekly that Cairo backed a "gradual approach in implementing any monitoring proposals in a way that would suit the conditions of each country." He added that, during the forum, several countries expressed reservations regarding the proposed international monitoring mechanism because it "represented a violation of their sovereignty, and we supported this view. We say that we are able to evaluate our own effort in fighting corruption and monitoring its results."
For his part, Kenyan Attorney-General Musikari Kombo sought to free developing nations of any blame. After stating that the new world economic order means giving priority to the private sector and international investments, he concluded: "This means that investments will come from the rich North to our countries. It also means that more needs to be done in the rich countries to combat corruption and bribes. As poor countries, we are vulnerable to corruption by the rich who offer those bribes in the first place."
Despite the heated debates, all participants agreed that there are practical and effective measures that could be taken immediately to fight corruption, particularly on the local level. The final statement spoke of their conviction that "examples should be set: by governments in ensuring the integrity of their officials; by political parties in promoting transparency in their financing and by the private sector in applying high standards of accountability." It warned that corruption is a "virus capable of crippling government, discrediting public institutions and private corporations, and thus undermining society and its development, affecting in particular the poor."
The participants noted that "corruption cannot prosper in the full light of openness" and affirmed that "independent and investigative media have a vital role to play" in the fight against corruption.
Aware that the privatisation of public sector companies in several countries has led to allegations of corruption against officials, the final declaration called for a "comprehensive public sector integrity policy that envisages the management of public services through a merit-based, professional and impartial civil service."
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