Principled Responsibility: Fulfilling Anti-Corruption Commitments and Transforming the Culture of Corruption

The United States welcomes the opportunity to participate in the Global Forum V on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity.

The United States also appreciates the efforts of the Government of the Republic of South Africa for hosting this year's gathering and on its leadership for the Global Forum V program and theme: "Fulfilling our commitments: effective action against corruption".

The United States applauds the efforts of the Global Forum International Organizing Committee (GF IOC) for its leadership over the past eight years. The GF IOC has led us to work cooperatively and has mobilized the international community to fight corruption and safeguard integrity throughout the world. The Global Forum began as a political forum at the highest levels of government. Since its beginning in 1999, the process has surpassed its original goals, which included giving the issue of corruption the high-level governmental attention it deserved, increasing international cooperation in this area, and promoting global anti-corruption standards and actions.

We are proud that together we have drawn world-wide attention to a subject that was once an unspoken taboo and a global anti-corruption instrument, once considered unthinkable, is now a reality. Given the existence of a global instrument on corruption - the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) -- and the beginning of a global process to turn the words of this comprehensive instrument into concrete global actions, we believe it is time to focus our resources - both financial and technical -- to the effective implementation of the UNCAC and the global Conference of States Parties (COSP) process that has been established to promote implementation and responsibly guide the Global Forum process to a meaningful outcome.

An Alliance of Hope: Ending the Entropic Spiral of Corruption

The United States places a high priority on combating global corruption and views it as a threat to development and prosperity of all nations. Corruption jeopardizes the integrity of world markets, the stability of political systems, and the security of the international community. It impedes efforts to promote freedom and democracy, stymies economic growth and foreign investment, facilitates transnational crime and terrorism, and casts shadows of lawlessness that erode public trust and the rule of law. Corruption robs nations of their future and people of their dreams by misappropriating public investment away from development areas that need it most, such as public sector modernization, infrastructure and social development.

High-level corruption by senior officials, or kleptocracy, is a grave and corrosive abuse of power and represents the most invidious type of public corruption. The United States is committed to developing strong partnerships, based on shared values that underpin good governance principles, which will encourage honest, responsible government and reward those that govern justly, invest in their people, and foster economic freedom.

Corruption is not just an American problem nor an African or a European one. It is not a problem that is unique to any one region or country. It is a global challenge.

Political Will: U.S. Efforts to Prevent and Combat Domestic Corruption

No one is above the law. The United States takes the issue of fighting corruption very seriously as demonstrated by the strong actions of our law enforcement community over the past several years to prosecute public corruption scandals in the United States.

Over the five-year period from 2001 to 2005, the most recent period for which we have data, the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) charged 5,749 individuals with public corruption offenses nationwide and obtained 4,846 convictions (this represents an 85% conviction rate). In investigating and prosecuting these cases, USDOJ works closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which currently has 639 agents dedicated to public corruption matters, up from 358 in 2002.

Several cases involved high-level officials or prominent business persons. For example, USDOJ's recent investigation of a former Washington D.C. lobbyist - a joint effort undertaken by the Criminal Division's Fraud and Public Integrity Sections - has netted a total of eight convictions thus far, including that of a former congressman. The U.S. Department of Justice also secured the conviction of another former congressman on bribery charges in March 2006, and he was subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison. At the state level, the U.S. Department of Justice has won convictions of two former state governors over the past year.

In short, the United States will investigate and prosecute public corruption without fear or favor wherever it is found.

In addition to prosecution, the United States also devotes substantial resources to the prevention and detection of corruption. By focusing attention and resources on programs promoting transparency and accountability, we can make it more difficult for corrupt practices to occur and easier to detect.

Particularly important aspects of prevention include publicly available personal financial reporting by senior federal officials including all elected officials, all judges and all senior political and career appointees. The requirements include substantial financial and fiduciary information for the official and financial information for the official's spouse and dependent children. Even prior to government service, an individual who is being considered for appointment by the President to a position in the executive branch is asked to file a financial report as a part of an initial screening process. The report is reviewed for purposes of conflicts of interest by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the agency in which the individual would serve. If the review detects potential conflicts, the individual is asked to enter into a written agreement outlining the steps he or she must take to avoid those conflicts. Those steps may include selling certain assets, resigning from outside positions, agreeing to recuse or, possibly, entering into a blind trust. This process also is a personal introduction to the requirements of the government's ethics program.

In addition to all senior officials many government professionals in the executive branch who hold risk-sensitive positions are also required to submit confidential personal financial statements which include information for the spouse and dependent children. Employees and managers use these reports to identify and avoid potential conflicts of interest.

In the area of education and training, the United States has implemented extensive programs at every government agency to help ensure an understanding of and compliance with ethics laws and requirements. All employees in the executive branch must receive an initial ethics orientation upon entering service. High-level executive branch officials who file publicly available financial disclosure reports must receive ethics training annually. Many other high- and mid-level employees must also receive annual ethics training, and many agencies require additional employees to attend annual ethics training. In addition to each agency's ethics program, the United States Office of Government Ethics oversees many training programs throughout the executive branch. The focus of the training is to educate government employees in order to help them avoid even creating the appearance of impropriety. Each agency is also required to appoint a designated agency ethics official, and one of the duties of such officials is to ensure that an ethics counseling program exists for all employees.

Complementing these prevention programs and providing substantial opportunities for detection of potential misconduct are significant enforceable procedural systems promoting consistency and transparency. These include general requirements for standardized and public administrative processes and licenses; public legislative processes that follow standardized rules; public judicial proceedings that follow standardized procedures; public budgeting processes and internal financial controls; a large merit-based civil service; and rights for public access to information regarding most government activities. In addition, the activities of the federal government are conducted under the watchful eye of an active and free press.

U.S. Efforts to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy

In addition to preventing, investigating, and prosecuting corruption at home, we are working to stem corruption around the world. Promoting good governance and fighting corruption is an important foreign policy priority for the President, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney General. In a statement to representatives of over 100 countries at the Fourth Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity held in Brasilia in 2005, President Bush stated:

"Every country is capable of fighting corruption, and the United States stands by nations who embrace transparency, promote the rule of law, and implement responsible economic policies… [and] is committed to working with dedicated partners to employ international anti-corruption measures, including denying safe haven to the corrupt, their corrupters, and their tainted assets."

Since then, the United States has worked to put those anti-corruption words into action by working with other committed partners throughout the world to strengthen the political will and resolve to establish transparent and accountable governance, empower citizens to demand efficient use of state resources and the fair use of regulatory and judicial powers, prosecute high-level public corruption, deny safe haven to corrupt officials, those who corrupt them, and their illicitly-acquired assets, and ensure responsible repatriation and use of the ill-gotten funds. In July 2006, in St. Petersburg, the Group of Eight (G8) agreed to prosecute acts of high-level corruption and to prevent corrupt holders of public office from gaining access to the fruits of their kleptocratic activities in the international financial system. We have also worked with partners in other fora including the Organization of American States (OAS), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, and the OECD-UNDP "Good Governance for Development in Arab States" (GfD) Initiative.

We applaud the recent efforts by the Africa Forum on Fighting Corruption to highlight the threats of corruption. We commend African Ministers for emphasizing the importance to the region of speedy ratification of, and accession to, the UN Convention Against Corruption as well as the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. We support those African partners committed to establishing and implementing laws that will give practical effect to the letter and spirit of these instruments. In particular, we hope to work cooperatively with those countries making the reforms necessary to prevent and prosecute acts of corruption successfully, including providing the technical expertise necessary to establish Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs).

The United States is eager to work with countries to prevent financial safe havens from developing in the first instance and to help partner governments recover plundered assets so that illicitly gained wealth is returned to serve the needs of citizens. We are committed to a range of technical assistance efforts too numerous to detail that are designed to assist developing country governments establish effective and transparent delivery of government services. We also stand committed to broad and inclusive efforts to empower citizens in democracies with the tools and resources they need to challenge corrupt practices and to demand transparent rulemaking.

In August 2006, President Bush unveiled the U.S. National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy. This strategy takes the fight against high-level corruption to a new level by involving U.S. foreign partners in more robust efforts to combat corruption. In order to implement its strategic objectives, the United States is: 1) launching a coalition of committed partners to trace and recover the proceeds of grand corruption; 2) vigorously prosecuting foreign corruption offenses and forfeit illicitly acquired assets; 3) denying physical safe haven to corrupt individuals; 4) strengthening multilateral action against the bribery of kleptocrats; 5) facilitating the effective disposition and administration of recovered assets for the benefit of the citizens of countries victimized by grand corruption; and 6) targeting and internationalizing enhanced capacity to fight high-level corruption.

Through Presidential Proclamation 7750, issued on January 12, 2004, the United States can deny or revoke visas for individuals involved in public corruption that has serious adverse effects on specific U.S. interests, including: (1) the international economic activity of U.S. businesses, (2) U.S. foreign assistance goals, (3) the security of the United States against transnational crime and terrorism, or (4) the stability of democratic nations and institutions.

The United States is engaged internationally to protect the financial system from abuse by those who would launder the proceeds of foreign official corruption and to identify, trace, freeze, recover, and repatriate such illicitly acquired assets. We continue to take and promote measures to press our international partners to deny entry to corrupt foreign officials; increase transparency in budgeting, concession-letting, and procurement; improve governance and accountability; investigate and prosecute their nationals and companies that bribe or promise to bribe foreign public and political party officials; and strengthen anti-bribery and accountability disciplines on export credits and official development assistance.

Enforcing the FCPA is a major priority for the United States. Since 2001, the Justice Department has substantially increased its focus on enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits U.S. companies - and foreign companies that issue stock on U.S. capital markets - from bribing foreign government officials. In that time, we have brought cases against many corporations and individuals, including five cases in the past six months alone.

The OECD Anti-bribery Convention and the OECD Working Group on Bribery provide important avenues for the United States to cooperate with counterparts outside the US to combat bribery in international business transactions. In addition, the G8 is working together to promote enhanced accountability on antibribery and anti-corruption and to ensure that G8 members lead globally on fighting bribery and fulfill prior commitments.

Today we also find ourselves in a rapidly changing world - we face numerous threats that undermine our common stability and security. In effectively combating corruption, we must also confront related illicit activities such as financial crimes. Kleptocrats, criminals and other illicit actors launder the fruits of their crimes through a variety of ways. Similarly, weak financial measures and lack of transparency demonstrated by certain kleptocratic regimes may provide an opportunity for terrorists to use vulnerable points in the global financial system to move funds to finance their terrorist activities.

Through joint determination and mutual cooperation, we can expose commonly used pathways of criminality and the web of corruption. The United States is committed to work with other international partners to identify, interdict, block, and cut off the financial pipelines to all corrupt individuals, criminal organizations, and illicit networks through the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and other diplomatic and enforcement avenues.

International Cooperation: Strengthening the Implementation of the UNCAC

It is because we are committed to safeguarding the integrity of economic and political systems around the world - by fighting corruption and corporate fraud - that we are gathered here this week in Johannesburg at Global Forum V. Although we come from different backgrounds and political systems, we all believe that safeguarding our economic and political systems is critical to long-term peace and prosperity.

Over the years, one cornerstone of our commitment within the Global Forum process has been our desire to develop strong anti-corruption principles such as those contained in the UNCAC and to implement and enforce those commitments. The UNCAC is the most ambitious international anti-corruption effort to date. It includes fundamental principles that are crucial in the fight against corruption. Those principles include requiring or recommending criminalization of certain corrupt behavior, and requiring international cooperation on anti-corruption efforts. It also calls for governance improvements that will help prevent corrupt acts from occurring.

Additionally, the Convention establishes the first ever comprehensive framework for recovery of illicit assets sent or taken abroad by corrupt officials. Many countries saw the problem of corrupt officials acquiring assets illicitly and hiding those assets in foreign safe havens as the core problem that the Convention should address.

Implementation of the UNCAC is now underway following a successful first meeting of the Conference of States Parties in Jordan last year. One of the COSP's first concrete achievements was the adoption of a self-assessment checklist to be completed by all States Parties. UNODC has distributed the finalized checklist to all States Parties and signatories. The United States strongly encourages all States Parties and signatories to complete the checklist in a timely manner. The checklist is designed to be easier to complete than many of the questionnaires that the international community has used in other contexts, such as the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime Conference of Parties (UNTOC COP).

We also look forward to working with States Parties in the context of the three working groups created by the COSP: technical assistance, asset recovery and review mechanism working groups. We believe that each one of these groups is capable of developing a practical, concrete plan for moving the UNCAC forward that balances the need to respect the sovereignty of States Parties with the need to make the UNCAC a meaningful and relevant instrument.

U.S. Foreign Assistance and Anti-corruption Capacity Building

The U.S. helps other governments to prevent corruption and increase transparency, improve good governance, combat money laundering, and prosecute transnational crime by providing technical assistance and training, and strengthening criminal justice systems and capacities of law enforcement agencies. Such assistance helps to enhance the ability of foreign governments to enhance public administration and to address their own crime challenges before these threats extend across international borders.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) includes anti-corruption efforts a central part of its foreign assistance strategy and takes a broad approach to assisting partner countries to strengthen their systems to resist corruption. USAID's anti-corruption programs are designed to help reduce opportunities and incentives for corruption; support stronger and more independent judiciaries, legislatures, and oversight bodies; and promote independent media, civil society, and public education. By providing capacity building and other forms of support, USAID encourages the growth of active, public policy-oriented civil society groups that will monitor governmental integrity, bring corruption issues onto the public agenda, and actively promote the twin concepts of transparency and accountability. Development approaches to address corruption are strengthened by coordinated diplomatic efforts and other international initiatives.

The State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) Affairs helps support capacity-building and training for police, investigators, prosecutors, judges, ethics offices, auditors, inspectors general, and other oversight, regulatory and law enforcement systems at the national and local levels of government. In partnership with USDOJ, INL helps to provide Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs) in some countries to help draft new laws, establish legal institutions, or share experience and techniques on prosecuting corruption. INL's International Law Enforcement Academies (ILEAs) around the world also help to provide targeted training on various anticrime areas.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development, Assistance and Training (OPDAT) is specifically tasked with providing assistance to strengthen criminal justice institutions in other nations and enhancing the administration of justice abroad. Often working in tandem with OPDAT is its sister unit within DOJ, the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), which provide assistance to police forces in developing countries throughout the world to strengthen police investigative capacities.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is providing a powerful incentive for governments to adopt tough anti-corruption policies and strengthen their anti-corruption institutions. In implementing the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), the MCC works to lift people around the world out of poverty through economic growth and incentives for governance reform. MCC is working to build public integrity is through the use of an objective, transparent, and competitive partner selection process. MCC offers grant assistance to developing countries that are willing to implement tough anti-corruption reforms. As a result, countries are taking it upon themselves to pass stronger anti-corruption laws, strengthen oversight institutions, open up the public policy-making process to greater public scrutiny, and step up corruption-related investigations and prosecutions.

MCC is also using its threshold program to scale up and accelerate the anti-corruption programs of reform-minded governments. These programs focus on reforming tax administration, customs administration, public financial management, and business licensing, and on strengthening the role of investigative journalists, public prosecutors, civil society watchdog units, and government auditing agencies in the fight against corruption. Additionally, MCC is advancing the global anti-corruption agenda by setting a new standard for performance-based aid allocation, as MCC is the only donor to tie eligibility for assistance directly to performance on a publicly-available and transparent indicator produced by a third party. MCC is reinforcing the idea that foreign assistance should be a two-way street: if donors are going to provide more assistance, recipient countries need to provide greater accountability and deliver results, including fighting corruption.

Building a New Generation of Principled Responsibility

Moving forward, governments bear the responsibility of translating the words of the UNCAC and other relevant anti-corruption conventions into action. The UNCAC process can and should play a supportive and important role in this regard.

The United States will continue to increase international cooperation to identify and prevent access by kleptocrats to financial systems; to deny safe haven to corrupt officials; to identify, recover and return proceeds of corruption; and to provide anti-corruption assistance for capacity and training to strengthen critical law enforcement and rule of law systems.

We also look forward to continuing our strong partnership with those who are committed to prosecuting the battle against corruption including the implementation of the UNCAC.

In closing, we are indebted to the leading countries and distinguished officials who through the Global Forum and other processes shared a unifying conviction to reject a culture of corruption in every corner of the world. As we transition from this particular process to other cooperative frameworks and multilateral fora, we must harness that resolve into action.

Fighting corruption is an ongoing and deliberate process. Together, we can create a better future by continuing our united efforts against corruption and building societies where all individuals can be governed with the highest level of integrity.

Through a new commitment to responsibility, we can leave an enduring legacy for our children anchored on the values of honest governance, openness, just conduct, and the rule of law.