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 9 November 2009
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Anti-Corruption Conference opens in Doha

09/11/2009

A global anti-corruption conference kicked off on Monday in Doha, the capital of Qatar, attended by hundreds of envoys from the United Nations, World Bank and government watchdog groups.

bribery

bribery

This is the third session of its kind since the United Nations Convention against Corruption, UNCAC, came into force in 2005.

The five-day gathering is the latest attempt to give some enforcement authority to the four-year-old UN anti-corruption pact backed by 141 nations, from the United States and many Western nations to countries with deep-rooted corruption.

Hunting down diverted public funds and developing a monitoring system will be at the heart of the discussion, says Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

"Implementation reporting should not be just ad hoc with countries telling in one way or another, what they have been doing, but there should be an exercise, this is what we have proposed, of peer pressure whereby other countries examine what happens in any given country. Mutually of course, this would also benefit the entire community of nations, in order to determine whether the commitment and engagements undertaken by ratifying the Convention are actually followed on the ground by the Member States."

The United Nations estimates that $1.6 trillion in public assets move across borders each year through networks such as money laundering or into secret holdings.

Jocelyne Sambira, United Nations
(duration: 1'29")

Sound bites

Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime

"Implementation reporting should not be just ad hoc with countries telling in one way or another, what they have been doing, but there should be an exercise, this is what we have proposed, of peer pressure whereby other countries examine what happens in any given country. Mutually of course, would also benefit the entire community of nations, in order to determine whether the commitment and engagements undertaken by ratifying the Convention are actually followed on the ground by the Member States."
Duration: 30 secs

Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime

"This is a statutory meeting organized every second year now to take stock of the porcess of implementation, to give the chance to member states to tell one another the progress they are making in promoting integrity and fighting corruption in their own jurisdictions. Now, it is also a moment to see the progress that is made in providing technical assistance- not much I must say, to the country that needs such assistance in order to implement the convention."
Duration: 31 secs

Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime

"There are four basic elements in the convention: the first one is about preventive measures. Those are very important, often under-estimated. These requirements confirm the importance of screening public officials, looking at their wealth, looking at the financial disclosures they make. At times we have officials in some countries earning 3-400 dollars and driving Mercedes car. We need to learn how this is actually possible and if this is honest revenue."
Duration: 30 secs