Contacts:
Washington: Geetanjali Chopra, 202-473-0243 gchopra@worldbank.org WASHINGTON, September 27, 2006—In a panel at the IMF/World Bank annual meetings held in Singapore last week, a number of anti-corruption advocates voiced support for the efforts that the Bank is making in the fight against corruption. The panel, entitled ‘Partnerships To Combat Corruption: Rising To The Challenge,’ took place Sept. 16 as part of a program of seminars – a dynamic forum where experts from governments and business and development community discuss the challenges and opportunities in the global economy. The discussion, chaired by Dele Olojede, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Chairman of Timbuktu Media, also included: Paul Wolfowitz, President, World Bank; Paul Volcker, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve between 1979-1987; Huguette Labelle Chairperson of the Board of Transparency International; Mohamed Ibrahim, Chairman of Celtel International B.V.; John Githongo, African anti-corruption advocate; and Nuhu Ribadu, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Nigeria. The group inextricably linked the fight against corruption with the fight against poverty, suggesting that governance and anticorruption efforts form an integral part of the World Bank's development work. “The greatest threat to development and, ultimately, to the Bank itself would be to sit back and be passive in the face of this challenge,” Volcker noted. “To take the view that its job is to lend freely whenever a perception of marginal benefit seems to justify it is not the right approach. Then, I think support for the institution and the effectiveness of its programs is sure to erode over time.” Githongo also discussed the inherent link between poverty and corruption and the importance of strong and independent governance institutions. “My own experience is -- the best factory for producing poverty is corruption. It is the most efficient machine of producing, not only poverty, but inequality. And it leads to a situation… where you can have economic growth, but when the governance institutions are weak that growth leads to resources being allocated unequally” he said. “It’s a side effect of corruption which I think is sometimes underrated, and it structurally affects the ability of governments to implement policies aimed at reducing poverty.” The importance of strong governance institutions was shared by Olojede who summarized the panel’s conclusions. “We should recognize that in societies where the bureaucracy is vast, the press is weak, the private sector operations under the yoke of government, these are the clearest indications of corrupt societies, and you cannot begin to fight corruption if you have all powerful government in any society. It makes the work far more difficult to pursue.” The panel looked at the barriers that poor governance creates through a number of perspectives. Ribadu spoke passionately about the human cost of corruption to society. “We know what corruption has cost us--it has denied us the value of our resources, both human and natural. It breeds injustice. It causes killings, the diseases that ravage us almost everywhere. It turns us into a country of people who live on the kindness of others and we are very angry. This is not what we want, and this is not what we are going to allow to continue.” Labelle echoed these sentiments, commenting on the seriousness of inaction toward corruption and its potential to breed other barriers to development. “Not only does [corruption] kill because people do not have the services that they should have because money is out somewhere else that should go to development. But it also kills in a very different way,” she said. “Money that is siphoned off into fiscal havens, laundered in a variety of ways, comes back either through the drug trade, through illicit weapons trade, comes back into the country to buy votes…” Ibrahim commented on the detrimental affects that graft has on the business community, focusing on the economic benefits to running a corruption-free company. “…[W]e put out a very strong message from day one. We said, not a single dollar was (to be) given away…It’s a matter of culture.” After a question and answer period in which they made recommendations to senior World Bank staff, Olojede summed up the panel’s comments, focusing on the critical importance of collaboration between anticorruption stakeholders. “If we are really looking at consequences, I think it allows us to better understand the magnitude of the challenge that we face in fighting corruption,” he said. “So there is no question, I think, from what we have heard from our panel that collaboration is essential to fighting corruption.” ### To view the transcript and multimedia on the panel, please click here. For more information on the World Bank please visit: www.worldbank.org For more information on the World Bank’s Anticorruption efforts, please visit the web site. |
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