Bribery has been recognised as a major non-trade barrier in international commercial transactions. In developing countries this has been concomitant with the growing influence of multinationals, over the past 50 years. The world community has tried to deal with this canker in many ways. The 1996 United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution called the “UN Declaration against Corruption and Bribery in international commercial transactions” defined the nature of bribery. So did the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), in its “Drafts International Agreement on Illicit Payment”.
The World Bank’s “procurement guidelines” define corrupt practices as “the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting of anything of value to influence the action of a public official in the procurement process or in contract execution” and fraudulent practices as “a representation of facts in order to influence a procurement process on the execution of a contract to the detriment of the borrower”. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its guidelines regarding “governance issues”, mentions corruption as “abuse of public office for private gains”.
The United Nations pioneered the anti-corruption movement in 1975. Since then different international and regional organisations have taken initiatives in this regard. Both international customary law and multilateral treaty law measures are in place to introduce the rule of law and anti-corruption strategies. These include a number of non-legal binding directive principles of UN General Assembly resolutions, ECOSOC resolutions, World Bank and IMF guidelines, WTO proposals, Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommendations and so on.
The UNGA and ECOSOC adopted resolutions such as “action against corruption”. First, they urge states to develop and implement specific and comprehensive anti-corruption strategies to enhance the level of accountability by adopting and enforcing civil, administrative, fiscal and criminal law. Second, they urge states to increase capacity for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of corrupt practices by promoting public awareness. Third, they also suggest the establishment of an appropriate, independent statutory body for the prevention, control and monitoring of corruption. Fourth, they urge the states to increase and improve international co-operation for the prevention and control of corruption, mutual legal assistance, sharing information and arrangements for extraditing the corrupt.
International initiatives to combat corruption will not be effective until countries do adopt and implement the legal provisions. The UN and other international organisations are not super states and, hence, cannot impose directives. Emerging international laws against corruption are not legally binding, and they lack a proper enforcement mechanism. But despite that, such developments are a positive step forward.
The writer is senior research scholar, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Panchanan Bhoi: Global fight against graft
Panchanan Bhoi / New Delhi Dec 13, 2005, 20:29 IST
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