UN, World Bank Start Corruption Fight September 17, 2007 - 9:06pm
By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations and the World Bank joined forces
Monday to try to recover billions of dollars stolen from the coffers of
developing countries every year by corrupt leaders and officials.
The Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative is aimed at giving teeth to provisions of
the U.N. treaty to fight global corruption, which came into force in December
2005, calling for the return of illicit assets.
"Many developing countries are hemorrhaging money desperately needed to try to
support the attack against poverty," World Bank President Robert Zoellick told
a meeting at U.N. headquarters to launch the initiative. "By one estimate
corrupt money flowing abroad from developing countries is estimated at $40
billion a year."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "the true cost of corruption far
exceeds the value of the assets stolen" because in developing countries, the
poor are deprived of health care, education, clean water, sanitation and paved
roads.
A report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said that assets stolen by
corrupt leaders "are frequently of staggering magnitude."
The report cited $15-35 billion allegedly embezzled by former Indonesian
dictator Suharto between 1967-98, $5-10 billion by the late Philippines
President Ferdinand Marcos between 1972-86, $5 billion by Congo's late dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko from 1965-97, and $1 billion by the late Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic from 1989-2000.
Zoellick noted that it took 18 years to recover just $620 million of Marcos'
money, "and it will be many decades before it recovers from the devastating
consequences of his actions."
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said that in
"victim countries" the new initiative will focus "on making public assets safe"
by creating independent anti-corruption agencies and ensuring high standards of
integrity and financial disclosure among civil servants.
He said that in rich countries where stolen funds are often invested,
"financial institutions need to be aware that banking secrecy is no longer an
obstacle to money laundering investigations." And he said "lawyers,
accountants, and real estate agents need to be wary of being accomplices to
sheltering stolen goods."
Costa urged governments to act fast to try to recover stolen assets, saying
experience shows that 10-15 years after the crime, "only about 10-15 percent of
the loot is recovered."
"No one pretends corruption will disappear in our lifetimes," he said. But the
initiative "can limit its impact, make officials think twice before picking the
public's pocket and, when this happens, return the loot."
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