Accountability of political leaders on the agenda

"When this session was originally devised, the terrible events of September 11th were still quite far away. But I think perhaps more than anyone could have envisaged at that time, political accountability has taken on even further importance," said Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce, who chaired yesterday's opening plenary session of the 10th IACC. Speakers included Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman, Interpol head Ronald Noble, investigating judge Eva Joly, JubileePlus Director Ann Pettifor, Deputy Justice Minister of the Netherlands, Joris Demmink, and Peru's Minister of Justice, Fernando Olivera.

Corruption and terrorism
Ronald Noble, Secretary General of Interpol, praised the international and inter-agency co-operation following the September attacks on the US. But he warned that the fight against corruption must not be abated in these times. "If customs, police and security professionals are corrupt, no expense of high tech devices will provide our citizens with the securities they deserve. The most sophisticated security systems, best structures or trained and dedicated security personnel are useless if they are undermined from the inside by a simple act of corruption. The fact is that the strongest fortress will crumble if built upon sand," said Mr. Noble.

Above the law?
But if the fortress is ruled by a corrupt king, the kingdom will likely follow suit. Magistrate Eva Joly employed a French expression: "The fish starts rotting from the head." She pointed to examples of corrupt leadership in Chile, Libya, Italy, where leaders have found loopholes to extricate themselves from crime and create barriers for investigators. Potential for corruption also rears its head in French law, according to Joly. "The French head of state seems to be above any judgement of a human court. His day of judgement is left to a more divine authority. Not only can the French president not be brought to trial, but he can even refuse to testify as a witness," Ms. Joly said.

Crippler of economies
Rooting out corruption must also be backed by transparent international financial transactions, said Ann Pettifor of JubileePlus. Transparent debtor-creditor transactions are imperative, she continued, and civil society structures should be included in the process. With civil society at the table, she argued, it becomes difficult for elites and regimes to corruptly incur foreign debt, which then ends up as a "cancer in the economies of their countries."

World Headlines

Human error was blamed for the deaths of 114 people when a passenger plane ploughed into a building at Milan's Linate airport.

Iran and Iraq have both issued statements condemning the US and British military strikes on Afghanistan.

In the city of Peshawar, in the northwest of Pakistan, Islamic fundamentalists took to the streets venting their fury against the US-led attack on Afghanistan.

Czech Headlines

The Czech Foreign Ministry is ready to provide five million crowns of humanitarian aid to refugees in northern Afghanistan.

Peruvian Minister urges Fujimori's extradition

Nowhere is the issue of the accountability of political leaders more acutely felt these days than in Peru. "We have to win the war against impunity," said Peruvian Justice Minister Justice Fernando Olivera, addressing the plenary session yesterday. Olivera urged the international community to push for Alberto Fujimori's extradition from Japan, so that the former president can be tried on corruption charges in Peru. Mr Olivera's efforts - including his revelations through the first 'Montesinos video' in September last year - were widely applauded at the IACC, not least by Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman, the leader of a country that has also suffered under the rule of unaccountable leaders in the past.

Transparency in the arms trade?

"Taking up arms trade without corruption has not been done before... it is viewed with scepticism but it isn't mission impossible," said Anne Wotterwik, of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a workshop on corruption in the arms trade at the 10th IACC, where government officials, business executives and members of Transparency International, gathered to discuss the controversial issue of how to establish transparency in the arms trade sector.

Colm Allan, Director of the South African Public Service Accountability Office at Rhodes University, provided insight into how the South African arms deal wasted resources on an invisible foe. The multibillion Rand deal, it appears, involved serious overpricing and large-scale corruption. Mr. Allan also raised the point of what exactly the legitimate defence need could be, since no major national security threat looms over South Africa. He said kickbacks and corruption lie at the heart of this deal, thereby eroding public confidence and shifting resources from tackling South Africa's main enemy, AIDS. The government, he said, "needs to justify openly why we should spend 67 billion Rand combating an invisible foe when we have to combat the largest foe in our country which is HIV." But Admiral Thaliani, Chairman of Transparency International India, believes that because of the veil surrounding the issue of national security, governments have been able up to now, to justify the opacity and corruption of an arms deal. Thaliani said that only civil society in one's respective country can demand an integrity pact from their own government and make them accountable. With this goal in mind, TI-India has been discussing with the Indian government the benefits of implementing standard operating procedures in arms procurement deals.

The cloak of secrecy that shrouds the arms trade also corrupts the business world. Chairman of Thales International, Dominique Lamoureux, maintained that watchdog organisations such as the media, the OECD steering committee, and even corporate competitors will keep companies walking a "straight line." A company, he said, is not noble. "A company is only noble because it is forced to be. With monitoring we are forced to be noble". All members at the workshop felt optimistic that transparency in the arms trade is a feasible goal. But, to quote Anne Wotterwik: "Progress takes time but with time comes understanding and commitment" and "with the continued pressure from the global community, extracting corruption from procurement of arms will help level the playing field, shifting resources from wasteland to where they are needed most."

Art against Corruption: Voices from the street

Since the October 5th opening of the international anti-corruption art exhibition organised by Transparency International Czech Republic in downtown Prague, visitors hailing from the Czech Republic to Israel to South Korea have been entertained, challenged and moved by the visual arts exhibit and theatre programme. Each day, some 1,500 people have ventured into the tent, which contains posters, political cartoons, and video documentaries from around the globe. One of the most important goals of Art against Corruption is to educate and provoke the public. Here are some of the reactions to the exhibit so far:

"I wept with gratitude when I saw this exhibition. The tolerance for corruption in the Czech Republic is THE most painful aspect of living here..." - N. Valentine

"Corruption must be disclosed. That is why this exhibition is a great step. First of all, the uselessness of corruption must be discovered by each of us." - Mila Karkova, Czech Republic.

"The exhibition was recommended by a friend. I particularly liked the comics and posters from Mexico and Australia because it's a totally different kind of humour from what we have here and in Slovakia." - Andreana Tinthoferova, Slovakia.

"It's very funny and clearly expresses the problem. The photographs and posters are the most effective because they make you think and imagine the problem of corruption, to see the problem as a whole." - Miroslav Herejk, Czech Republic.

Making gains against corruption in Colombia

The TI Integrity Awards presented at this year's IACC highlight the risks associated with anti-corruption work. But the Colombian chapter of TI continues its work undaunted.
"We are at risk no more than any other Colombian is at risk," says Rosa Ines Ospina, TI Board Member and president of Transparencia por Colombia. But there is no doubt that Ospina and her colleagues at the Colombian chapter of TI face unique challenges in tackling corruption. Against the background of violence and insecurity, the chapter works to strengthen the country's institutions. Ospina says that the worst damage caused by corruption in a country like Colombia is not economic but socio-political: "People have lost trust in their institutions and government legitimacy has been eroded," she says. The perception of corruption is extraordinarily high in the country. "If asked, Colombians will say that most of our leaders are corrupt or ignore the corruption that surrounds them," she notes.

The 1991 Constitution loosened the state's chokehold on civil society organisations in Colombia and since its launch in 1998, the Transparency International chapter has doggedly pursued an anti-corruption agenda aimed particularly at cleaning up politics and the public sector. Ospina is no stranger to government projects, having worked in the public sector for more than 20 years on development and social projects. She stresses the need for civic participation in the control of public spending. To this end, the chapter focuses on developing tools to monitor public procurement and is a leading player in an informal national coalition of 25 NGOs that lobby for government transparency. Transparencia por Colombia has worked with the government in implementing more than a dozen Integrity Pacts - no bribery pledges signed by the public procurement body and bidders competing for contracts. TI chapters in 7 countries of Latin America alone are working on monitoring procurement by this means. And the Colombian group is increasingly co-operating with TI chapters world-wide on further development of this tool - most recently with the Peruvian chapter-in-formation and TI-Pakistan.

Interest in Transparencia por Colombia has been spreading in the country. The group has grown to more than 50 members, including NGOs, universities and, for the first time, private companies. TI-Colombia's corporate members - which include Unisys, Hewlett Packard, Banco Santander, Davivienda and Colpatria - have all agreed to and signed an Ethics Declaration, by which they commit themselves to implementing accountability and ethics standards. The Colombian chapter is also developing a work methodology for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to implement company ethics programmes and a pilot project has already been established in a small company in Hermagu. The challenge for businesses and governments alike, says Ospina, is to implement the standards that exist on paper. Transparencia por Colombia will continue to work alongside its partners to ensure that they do.

TI-Colombia's web site is: www.transparenciacolombia.org.co

"Crossing the thin blue line"

"The problem of police corruption is very much alive in all corners of the world, " said Alan Lai, Commissioner of Hong Kong's Independent Council against Corruption at the 10th IACC yesterday at a workshop on police corruption. Earlier in the day, Ronald Noble, the head of Interpol - the international criminal police organisation - stressed that " citizens' confidence in the integrity of the police is a pre-condition for democracy, economic growth and human rights. " He added that while Interpol is developing codes of police conduct and establishing a library of best practices, they cannot dictate to any police service. " If we are to make progress against the problem of police corruption, " he said, " we need your help to persuade civil societies, local governments, and the police about the importance of fighting corruption. "

Transparency International Czech Republic has taken a step in this direction. In 'Crossing the Thin Blue Line', a study released today, the group has undertaken a review of anti-corruption strategies in 25 countries around the globe. The study conducted by Slovak sociologist Pavol Fric concludes that stricter sanctions are required to curb corrupt behaviour. The only means to combat the problem, according to the group, is the introduction of a Police Code of Ethics.

How did countries fare in the study? The country that employs the broadest application of preventive and repressive measures is Singapore, they found. Argentina and the Czech Republic base their strategy on the most minimal implementation of either preventive or repressive measures.

"There is a strategic shift from pure investigation to the area of prevention." Andrew Sellars, Chief Superintendent, Metropolitan Police, UK.