West warned of anti-graft drive
Monday, 19 November 2007
Hugh Williamson
The new head of Transparency International(TI) has warned London and other global financial centres to expect "much, greater pressure" from the corruption watchdog to tighten antigraft and money laundering regulations.
Cobus de Swardt told the Financial Times in his first full interview since becoming TI managing director in June that corruption "facilitated by bankers and financial centres" had received too little attention by the global pressure group, but that this was changing.
Founded in 1993, TI was now entering a "second wave" of corruption campaigning focused more on the responsibility of western governments and companies for "perpetuating corruption in poorer parts of the world", he said.
Calling for more stringent government regulation of onshore and offshore financial centres, including New York and Singapore, he said: "It is a question of whether the legal requirements [on companies] as they exist now are sufficient to prevent illegal money or money from, corruption to flow into the [international financial] system. We are clear that they are absolutely not enough."
He indicated that TI would lobby for specific regulations on shell companies - and their bankers, accountants and advisers - that are used to hide corrupt funds.
In another sign of a more robust stance towards business, TI will in January for the first time publish a report on the actions of specific companies in combating corruption. The report will assess big oil, gas and mining companies on their readiness to publish information on their revenue flows in energy projects, especially in developing countries.
Mr de Swardt - a 45-yearold South African - said it was "quite-incredible" that many companies were "resistant to publishing this (information)". Extractive industry companies had lobbied TI to withhold or water down the report, people familiar with the issue said.
TI's annual Corruption Perceptions Index country ranking is the world's most widely used corruption measure for governments, companies and others, but Mr de Swardt said the impression from the ranking - that poor and developing countries were the most corrupt - needed to be corrected, with greater attention to those "supplying" the financial resources enabling corruption to occur.
He said the "political message" of the ranking would in future be that "countries that have less corruption internally very often continue to play a major role to perpetuate corruption in poorer parts of the world".
Mr de Swardt criticised western countries for a "legal and moral lack of commitment" to the OECD anti-bribery convention".
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Under syndication arrangement with FE
The new head of Transparency International(TI) has warned London and other global financial centres to expect "much, greater pressure" from the corruption watchdog to tighten antigraft and money laundering regulations.
Cobus de Swardt told the Financial Times in his first full interview since becoming TI managing director in June that corruption "facilitated by bankers and financial centres" had received too little attention by the global pressure group, but that this was changing.
Founded in 1993, TI was now entering a "second wave" of corruption campaigning focused more on the responsibility of western governments and companies for "perpetuating corruption in poorer parts of the world", he said.
Calling for more stringent government regulation of onshore and offshore financial centres, including New York and Singapore, he said: "It is a question of whether the legal requirements [on companies] as they exist now are sufficient to prevent illegal money or money from, corruption to flow into the [international financial] system. We are clear that they are absolutely not enough."
He indicated that TI would lobby for specific regulations on shell companies - and their bankers, accountants and advisers - that are used to hide corrupt funds.
In another sign of a more robust stance towards business, TI will in January for the first time publish a report on the actions of specific companies in combating corruption. The report will assess big oil, gas and mining companies on their readiness to publish information on their revenue flows in energy projects, especially in developing countries.
Mr de Swardt - a 45-yearold South African - said it was "quite-incredible" that many companies were "resistant to publishing this (information)". Extractive industry companies had lobbied TI to withhold or water down the report, people familiar with the issue said.
TI's annual Corruption Perceptions Index country ranking is the world's most widely used corruption measure for governments, companies and others, but Mr de Swardt said the impression from the ranking - that poor and developing countries were the most corrupt - needed to be corrected, with greater attention to those "supplying" the financial resources enabling corruption to occur.
He said the "political message" of the ranking would in future be that "countries that have less corruption internally very often continue to play a major role to perpetuate corruption in poorer parts of the world".
Mr de Swardt criticised western countries for a "legal and moral lack of commitment" to the OECD anti-bribery convention".
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Under syndication arrangement with FE