Resumé: "Fighting corruption is essential to meeting the great challenges of our times.... When corruption flourishes, it weakens confidence in public institutions such as law enforcement, and undermines the honest values that democracy depends upon. All people deserve legal systems that spread opportunity, instead of protecting the narrow interests of a well-connected few." President Bush at the Third Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity, May 2003 - La Corruption

WHAT THE UNITED STATES IS DOING TO COMBAT CORRUPTION

U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The United States was the first country in the world to criminalize the bribery of foreign public officials with the enactment of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977. OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions has been a long-term priority of the USG.

Since the negotiation of the convention in 1997, almost all of its 35 signatories have ratified the convention and enacted laws criminalizing the bribery of foreign public officials.

International Anticorruption and Good Governance Act Congress passed the International Anticorruption and Good Governance Act of 2000 (IAGGA) on October 5, 2000,"to ensure that United States assistance programs promote good governance by assisting other countries to combat corruption throughout society and to improve transparency and accountability at all levels of government and throughout the private sector."

The IAGGA further requires the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Administrator of the Agency for International Development (USAID), to prepare an annual report to Congress that surveys U.S. Government diplomatic and programmatic anticorruption efforts, as well as host government efforts, in priority countries.

President Bush's International Transparency and Anticorruption Agenda

President Bush has made fighting corruption a key U.S. foreign policy priority. Corruption is the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development, according to the World Bank, which estimates the direct costs of bribery to national economies at over $1 trillion  each year.

But fighting corruption is also key to a broad cross-section of law enforcement and criminal justice sector concerns including: counter-terrorism; counter-narcotics; money laundering; financial crime; terrorist financing; smuggling of goods; illegal migration; trafficking in persons; border controls; document security; cyber-crime; and intellectual property rights protection.

President Bush's international transparency and anticorruption agenda is necessarily multi-faceted:

-- Deny safe haven to corrupt officials

-- Launch the Millennium Challenge Account that targets billions of dollars in U.S. development assistance to those countries that fight corruption, rule justly, invest in their people, and encourage economic freedom

-- Launch the G-8 (Group of Eight industrialized countries) Sea Island "Fighting Corruption and Improving Transparency" Initiative (which promotes high standards of transparency in public financial management, procurement, the letting of public concessions, and the granting of licenses)

-- Lead international efforts to gain agreement on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which contains innovative provisions that would commit governments to take steps to prevent corruption as well as to promote international cooperation in efforts to recover assets derived from corruption

-- Strengthen the OECD monitoring of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention implementation

-- Promote cooperation on fighting corruption in regional fora

-- Initiate and support the Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity process

-- Lead by example, preventing U.S. multinational business from bribing overseas, enforcing corruption laws, promoting good public/corporate governance, and building tools and institutions to prevent corruption.

The United States along with other international donors encourages the World Bank and regional development banks to make anticorruption a major policy focus of their activities and lending practices. As a member of the World Bank/OECD Global Corporate Governance Forum, the United States is working with the international financial institutions and the private sector to promote good corporate governance.

The United States is an active participant in the Council of Europe's (CoE) Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO), which monitors the efforts of its 34 members to implement anticorruption principles and commitments. GRECO's standards are set out in the CoE's Twenty Guiding Principles, the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (to which the United States is a signatory), and the Civil Law Convention on Corruption. Through GRECO, experts from the United States and other member countries have over the past three years made on-site visits to evaluate anti-corruption efforts of member states and provide constructive advice on how such efforts can be improved. The United States continues to lead efforts to promote the role of civil society in the fight against corruption. This work takes the form primarily of technical assistance and funding for such organizations throughout the world. In several countries, the United States is promoting formal partnerships between government and civil society relating to the fight against corruption.

Bribery Reports The Secretary of Commerce is required by statute to provide an annual report to Congress on implementation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The DOC/ITA 2004 Bribery Report is available at http://www.tcc.mac.doc.gov/pdf/2004bribery.pdf       

WHAT IS THE UNITED STATES DOING ABOUT CORRUPTION SPECIFICALLY IN EUROPE?

International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, is the Bureau in the State Department that is responsible for the development of policies and the management of over $1 billion in programs globally to combat transnational criminal threats, some of which focus bilaterally on helping nations develop and strengthen their own institutions and rule of law, while others focus on bringing groups of nations together to address these threats multilaterally. In Albania, for example, INL funded a Department of Justice project to train Albanian police and prosecutors in modern investigative and prosecutorial techniques focused on disrupting and dismantling organized criminal enterprises. This project is linked to other, broad U.S. assistance projects in Albania focused on modernization of the National Police, enhancing the capabilities of the prosecution service, and establishing international standards of border security at three major ports-of-entry.

The U.S. also participates actively in and funds the Anti-Corruption Network for Transition Economies, which includes the nations of Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Trans-Caucasus.

The Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe has an anti-corruption arm -- the Stability Pact Anti-Corruption Initiative (SPAI). SPAI provides a forum for Balkan member states to meet and develop anti-corruption strategies. INL has worked closely with SPAI to develop sustainable project plans. Resident Legal Advisor Programs Another key part of INL's mission is, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice, to provide Resident Legal Advisors or RLAs to countries to give them continuous, on the ground advice on how to establish appropriate legal institutions necessary for their own security and to confront transnational threats. INL RLA programs are active in Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro/Kosovo, and Uzbekistan. In Romania, for example, the RLA program donated specialized investigative equipment (listening and communications devices) and provided training to the National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (PNA) so that Romanian authorities can more effectively investigate and prosecute corruption cases, particularly public corruption cases involving organized criminal activity.

Throughout Eurasia, Freedom Support Act (FSA) programs emphasize two priorities: 1) decentralization of power and strengthening of civil society by strengthening NGOs, independent media, local governments, and the judicial branch and bolstering the rule of law by fighting corruption and improving the effectiveness of law enforcement systems. In many countries of the region, FSA programs work to fight corruption by encouraging good governance, transparency, accountability, and judicial independence. These are key elements of anti-corruption strategies. FSA programs consist primarily of technical assistance. Rather than transferring funds to host governments, they provide expertise and know-how to governments, the private sector, NGOs, the media, and other sectors of society to advance democratic and market reform. For a list of INL anti-corruption programs in Europe and Eurasia, see http://www.state.gov/g/inl/rls/other/32754.htm  - eur 

The International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest Since the opening in 1995 of the International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest, thousands of law enforcement officers from 25 countries in Central Europe and the countries comprising the former Soviet Union have successfully completed the core eight-week program. The Department of State funds the ILEA, while 16 other U.S. law enforcement agencies participate in the ILEA program.  Ireland, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Canada, Russia, and such organizations as INTERPOL and the Council of Europe have also provided instructors to ILEA Budapest.

Other Sources:

The International Chamber of Commerce anti-corruption page http://www.iccwbo.org/home/menu_extortion_bribery.asp 

TI-USA is the U.S. chapter of Transparency International (TI), the Berlin-based non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1993 to curb corruption in international transactions.  Through its network of chapters in over 80 countries, TI encourages governments to implement effective anti-corruption laws and policies, promotes reform through international organizations and raises public awareness. http://www.transparency.org/ 

Transparency International's "Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit," first produced as an international edition in CD-ROM format in 2001, is a compendium of practical civil society anti-corruption experiences described in concrete terms and accessible language. It presents innovative anti-corruption tools developed and implemented by TI National Chapters and other civil society organizations from around the world.

The Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit highlights the potential of civil society to create mechanisms for scrutiny and control of public institutions, and to demand and promote accountable and responsive public administration. 

The Corruption Fighters' Toolkit is available at http://www.transparency.org/toolkits/index.html Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2004: http://www.globalcorruptionreport.org/ OECD Anti-Corruption Division http://www.oecd.org/department/0,2688,en_2649_34855_1_1_1_1_1,00.html