Financial Transparency Coalition

BERLIN/DEAUVILLE – Transparency International (TI), the anti-corruption organisation, is calling on the Group of Eight countries to back up its Deauville Summit commitment to aid the fight against corruption in Arab Spring countries with concrete action to ensure recovery of stolen assets, and prevention of their flight in future.

Today’s G8 summit failed to commit to mandatory disclosure requirements for oil, gas, and mining companies payments to governments on a country-by-country basis. Such rules already exist in the United States (the Dodd-Frank act) and Hong Kong.

“The G8 have today recognised the need for accountable institutions in Egypt and Tunisia, and civil society’s role in achieving that. This is a welcome development, and we look forward to engaging with the G8 to help build a more transparent future in the region,” said Angela McClellan, Senior Programme Coordinator at Transparency International. “But aid is not enough; the G8 must also address the opacity of the financial system and multinational companies’ operations in these countries. Failure to do so will undermine reform efforts.”

Action should follow words on stolen assets

To meet its commitments to support Egypt and Tunisia in their recovery of stolen assets the G8 should take specific, concrete action:

• Creating independently-run escrow accounts so that banks do not unethically profit from stolen assets that are frozen pending investigation and restitution;
• Oblige banks to carry out enhanced due diligence on clients who are politicians or senior officials;
• Fully support all legal actions aimed at recovering stolen assets, including assets transferred to trusts;
• Create a fund to assist developing countries in their asset recovery efforts, which can support capacity building and legal assistance;
• Make public the investigations into suspected illicit flows to strengthen public confidence that there is no impunity for corrupt dictators.

For more information, please see Transparency International’s recommendations to the G20 anti-corruption report.

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Transparency International is the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption

Media Contact: Deborah Wise Unger, Tel: +49 39 34 3820 666, press@transparency.org