G20 leaders must rescue anti-corruption commitments at the Rio Summit

Transparency International is disappointed that the G20 Anti-Corruption Ministerial Declaration, released yesterday, neglects the G20’s critical role and responsibility in marshalling efforts against cross-border corruption. This is despite the devastating impact of illicit financial flows on sustainable development and inequality reduction – this year’s G20 priorities – which they had previously recognised themselves.

The adoption of the declaration follows the efforts by the Brazilian and French co-chairs of the G20’s anti-corruption workstream this year to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including civil society. Transparency International had contributed to the process, conveying our policy positions on how the G20 can best contribute to the fight against corruption while advancing sustainable development and supporting efforts to reduce inequalities.

Despite the preceding preparatory work, the declaration fails to achieve consensus on or offer the way forward on the most critical anti-corruption measures. Without these, any new efforts to advance sustainable development and reduce inequalities will suffer – including the Brazilian G20 Presidency’s proposed wealth tax for the ultra-rich.

The declaration text fails to recognise that the G20 countries themselves perpetuate corruption and illicit financial flows. Officials only name-checked issues on which they had previously issued detailed commitments, such as financial secrecy. Other key areas they had previously pledged to work on are entirely missing from the declaration, including the need to prevent professional service providers from enabling corruption. This issue has evidently been dropped from the G20’s agenda, despite the overwhelming evidence that loopholes in the regulation and oversight of such gatekeepers, including in many of the G20 countries, lead to the outflow of funds from low- and middle-income countries.

Maíra Martini, corrupt money flows expert and Head of Policy & Advocacy (interim) at Transparency International, said:

“If the G20 is unable to even maintain a consensus on previously well-established anti-corruption commitments, can we have confidence in them to take on issues as big as sustainable development and inequality? The G20 agenda is driven by leaders and it’s time for them to realise that there can be no sustainable development without coordinated, effective action on corruption. The G20 has one last opportunity this year to show that they are serious about addressing this enormous challenge, and we are looking to the Leaders’ Summit in Rio to rescue the G20 anti-corruption agenda.”

Note to editors

See also Transparency International’s feature article: Anti-corruption: The missing ingredient in the G20’s sustainable development push.