Official Bank Sites Related Information September 17, 2006—Improved governance and anti-corruption measures must be an integral part of any anti-poverty strategy. This idea got an impassioned endorsement from an eminent group of global opinion leaders in Singapore on Sunday. Paul Volcker, chairman of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the U.N. Oil for Food Program, John Githongo, noted Kenyan anti-corruption crusader, Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International, Mohammed Ibrahim, chairman of the "squeaky clean" telecom company Celtel International, and Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria, each made the point that reduction of corruption was key to the reduction of poverty. Facing the Challenge They were speaking at a panel discussion moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dele Olojede, and organized by the World Bank Institute at a plenary of the Program of Seminars accompanying the Bank-IMF Annual Meetings. Speaking first, Volcker said any failure to deal with corruption would undercut development. "The greatest threat to development, and to the World Bank itself, would be to sit back in the face of this challenge," he asserted. If the Bank attempted to lend more without addressing this issue, it would only "reduce the value of that new lending…and erode the effectiveness of its programs," he said. Echoing the point, Githongo said he could not accept the debate that anti-corruption measures by multilateral institutions were antithetical to anti-poverty measures. "The most effective machine to produce poverty and inequality is corruption," he said. Githongo had been appointed the anti-corruption watchdog in his country in 2003 but was then ousted and exiled. Corruption thrived in the "embedded networks" of bureaucrats, politicians, security officials, and businessmen-brokers. Executive accountability and the rule of law were necessary to accost them, said Githongo. Ribadu, who is currently on the frontlines of the battle as the chief corruption investigator in his country, said corruption had denied poor countries the value of their own resources, both human and natural. He spoke movingly of how money that could have funded schools and hospitals was siphoned out of countries like his. "We are tired of living on the kindness of others…we first have to make corruption and the mismanagement of resources history in order that poverty becomes history," he said to applause. Corrosive Effects Labelle and Volcker both referred to the recent assassination of the reforming Russian central bank executive, Andrei Kozlov, as an example of the corrosive effects of corruption. Ibrahim forcefully made the point that for every bribe taker, there was a bribe giver. "We need less hypocrisy in tackling the problem," he said. He narrated how his mobile telephony company, which operates in 15 sub-Saharan countries, had a consciously inculcated culture of "never offer a single dollar." That corruption is a two-way street came up more forcefully in the question-answer session. Panelists made the point that just as developing countries had to improve governance to prevent corruption and penalize offenders, developed countries must take steps to punish bribe givers and prevent the hoarding of illicit money in their banking systems. "The developed countries cannot have a double standard," said Ribadu. Earlier, in his welcome remarks, President Paul Wolfowitz emphasized his belief that corruption was a major impediment to development, and poverty reduction could not take place without adequate governance and anti-corruption safeguards. |
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