Wednesday 1stMay 2013
Venue: Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, Nonthaburi.(Room:Nontaburi 1)
Combating Corruption Beyond Borders: Empowering ASEAN Youth In Anti-Corruption
Prof. Pakdee PothisiriCommissioner
National Anti-Corruption Commission
Prof Pakdee welcomed participants and expressed his pleasure at being able to discuss cross-border corruption. His presentation was divided into three parts:
·
Part I:
Understanding corruption in our globalized world- how corruption has
transformed itself into an international borderless crime.
·
Part II:
Anti-corruption efforts at the International & ASEAN levels.
· Part III: Empowering the role of youth in anti-corruption.
To understand how corruption exploits the changing nature of trade and operates in an integrated globalized world, Prof Pakdee presented two hypothetical cases of domestic and international corruption schemes.
First, a well-respected “Not-so-clean” politician in Country A conspires with a local construction company owner to build a bridge to cross from one island to the country’s second island. He feels he deserves to be compensated a little extra for this idea that will shorten journey times and improve everyone’s lives. So, in collusion with his friend the contractor, he devises a plan to make the bid look fair and transparent, but takes a 10% cut.
How would this change in a globalized scenario?
With businessmen from Countries B and C entering the picture, the politician then awards the bid to the highest bidder, so he may take a bribe of as much as 30% rather than 10%. The bribe is typically transferred via complex, cross-border financial transactions, accumulating in numbered offshore accounts. Therefore, the real competition in the bid lies not in the offer price, but in the bribe price. This brings a loss to citizens, either in terms of value for taxpayer money, or in substandard quality of materials- or both of the above. For the politician, the risk of detection and prosecution is very low.
Prof Pakdee then presented a not-so-hypothetical case in Equatorial Guinea, West Africa. With a population of 680,000, the country was headed by President Teodoro Obiang since 1979. It is the fourth largest oil-producer in sub-Saharan Africa, and is the richest country per capita in Africa; its GDP-per-capita of over US$35,000 is on a par with Spain and Italy.
Despite its wealth, 70% of the population lives below the poverty line; half of the population has no access to clean drinking water or electricity, and 1 out of 5 children die before reaching the age of five.
The President did not even try to hide his wealth and lived an opulent lifestyle. Eventually, in 2011, the US brought an anti-kleptocracy action, filing a civil forfeiture case against Teodorin Obiang, first-born of President Theodoro Obiang. Teodorin was residing in the US at the time.
The anti-corruption suit seeks to seize, among other items:
• $30 m Malibu mansion
• $37 m Gulfstream jet
• $3 m Michael Jackson memorabilia
• $12 m fleet of 26 luxury cars
Also, it was discovered that Teodoirin planned to build a $380 million super-yacht; equivalent to 3 times the country’s budget for health and education combined.
Reality Check: How much corrupt money is moving around the world every year?
The World Bank estimates US$1.6 trillion of cross-border flow of money from criminal activities and tax evasion, and US$ 40 billion lost to bribes and misappropriation of funds in developing countries. However, losses are not only direct financial losses, but also include loss of trust in public institutions.
Corruption levels are estimated most authoritatively by the Corruption Perception Index, introduced by Transparency International (www.transparency.org) in 1995. CPI ranks countries on an annual basis by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. As of 2012, the CPI ranks countries on a scale from 100 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt).
In 2012 CPI found that two-thirds of the 176 countries ranked in the 2012 Index score below 50; New Zealand, Denmark and Finland ranked top; and Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia share last place with a score of only 8 out of 100. The highest levels of corruption were in countries plagued by conflict; corruption does not only fuel conflict- it makes them even harder to stop.
How do ASEAN countries measure up? With Singapore scoring 87 and Brunei 55, the remaining countries all scored less than 50 out of 100, indicating a serious corruption problem across the region.
Moving to the second part of his presentation, Prof Pakdee gave an overview of anti-corruption cooperation at international & ASEAN levels. The two key international instruments in fighting corruption are as follows:
1) The United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which came into force on 14 December 2005, it is the first legally binding international anti-corruption instrument. It currently has 165 State Parties, including all 10 ASEAN countries; and
2) Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention. This came into force on 15 February 1999, aiming to address the supply side of corruption (the bribe giver) by criminalizing bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. It currently has 40 member countries. Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia now have observer status to this convention.
The advantages of being a State Party to international anti-corruption conventions are many, First, they improve the image and reputation of a party country by affirming a country’s commitment to tackle corruption, and facilitate enhanced international cooperation, which is an effective mechanism in fighting corruption, now a transnational crime.
International instruments also provide clear direction for legislative amendments to ensure that national legal frameworks conform to international standards, and provide mechanisms for receiving technical assistance to improve legislation and capacity building.
In regard to anti-corruption cooperation in the South East-Asian region, Southeast Asia Pacific Anti-Corruption (SEAPAC) was established as an informal network of the anti-corruption agencies of 9 countries in the ASEAN region. SEAPAC meets twice a year to share progress of anti-corruption efforts and exchange relevant experience and know-how. Myanmar has expressed its intention to join the group at the end of this year.
With major infrastructural projects driven by integration in the ASEAN Region, there is a major need to address these corruption risks:
· ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 – a single market and production base to allow the free movement of goods, services, investment, capital and labor throughout the 10-member South-East Asian region
· ASEAN’s long-term flagship projects for integrating the region’s infrastructure: the ASEAN Power Grid, the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline, the ASEAN Highway Network and the Singapore-Kunming Rail Link Projects.
In order to address this challenge, it will be necessary to harness the power of all sectors- public, private and civil society. Civil society in particular is a powerful force in monitoring and exposing corruption, and in demanding transparency and accountability.
In the third and final part of his presentation, Prof Pakdee addressed the role of youth in fighting corruption. Today, youth & children comprise 40% of the world’s population, and the proportion is much higher for developing countries.
Prof Pakdee illustrated the potential of youth using several case studies:
(1) Youth in Solidarity (India)
In 2011 the majority of the supporters of the mass anti-corruption movement was led by social activist Anna Hazare were youth, particularly university students tired of the endemic corruption problem in their country.
(2) Global Youth Anti-Corruption Network (GYAC)
Supported by World Bank Institute, GYAC is a growing global network of young leaders, journalists, artists, and experts on IT from civil society all over the world. GYAC supports its members by connecting through www.voices-against-corruption.org.
GYAC raises awareness of corrupt
practices in their respective communities
using music to spread anti-corruption messages to all youth around the world
(http://anticorruptionmusic.org).
GYAC also offers young journalists a platform to write about governance and corruption-related
issues.
RAISING THE VOICES OF THE YOUTH at the
International Stage, GYAC participated in the 14th International
Anti-Corruption Conference in Bangkok, Thailand from 10-13 November, 2010.
GYAC members produced a Bangkok Declaration of Young People, which among other
things, asserted the right of youth to participate in fight against corruption.
GYAC also joined the 15th International Anti-Corruption Conference, Brasilia, Brazil, from 7-10 November, 2012. GYAC members held their annual forum in conjunction with the IACC, and also organized and ran their own workshop sessions on the topic of youth empowerment. Live coverage of the conference was provided through blogs, online reporting and social media.
(3) Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network
Thai young people say no to corruption! “I realized the problem of corruption- there is a lot of it in Thailand, but I didn’t know what I could do" (Sayuti Salam, undergraduate student and President of the Thai Youth Anti-Corruption Network). The network has a membership of 1,600 students from 90 universities, and recently 1,500 young people commemorated International Anti-Corruption Day by organizing a high-profile arts exhibition. The network has a strong and growing online community.
In conclusion, Prof. Pakdee offered four concrete suggestions for young people to contribute in a concrete way to fighting corruption on a practical level, as follows:
1) DON’T participate in or condone corruption;
2) Join an anti-corruption network(s) and participate in their activities (e.g. GYAC, local youth network);
3) Spread the anti-corruption message in your community (sharing anti-corruption news articles on your social network);
4) Engage your friends to find creative ways to raise awareness of the dangers of corruption (activities to commemorate International Anti-Corruption Day (9th December) and International Youth Day on 12th August.