Thailand to host global corruption school

Thailand to host global corruption school

It will be fun to see how this develops, perhaps they'll bring back Thaksin to lead the merry dance, after all he is the expert in these matters.

Bangkok (dpa)

A three-day global congress on transnational financial crimes kicked off on Tuesday in Bangkok, where Interpol hopes to win financial support for the world's first anti-corruption academy, scheduled to open in 2009.

"Nobody will dispute that corruption and financial crimes are closely interrelated," said Ronald Noble, Interpol secretary general, in his opening speech to the 4th Global Financial Crime Congress, co-hosted in Bangkok by Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The congress, which has drawn more than 200 experts from law enforcement agencies, multinational organisations and the private sector, will provide an opportunity to boost international cooperation against financial crimes in the six areas covered by Interpol operations, including terrorism, drug-trafficking, human trafficking, felony investigations, high-tech crimes and corruption.

Corruption was only added to Interpol's crime list last year, when Austria, then holding the presidency of the European Union, agreed to provide a site for the world's first international anti-corruption academy.

"Interpol can play a crucial role in education, training and capacity building and also on the operational level, both in assisting investigators and in helping countries recover assets that have been stolen by corrupt individuals," said Noble, of Interpol's future role in the corruption-fighting academy.

Students will be instructed in proper investigation methods of political corruption cases and in tracking money that has been socked away abroad by corrupt officials, he added.

Although Interpol's 168 members have unanimously supported the new academy, and the new direction for the crime-fighting organisation, it remains to be seen which governments will be willing to make contributions to the 15 million euros needed to finance the school's operational expenses during the first three years, Noble told a press conference.

The Interpol secretary general will use the three-day congress in Bangkok to seek contributions to the anti-corruption academy, he said.

"The test is whether or not they are going to give the money," Noble said of Asian government's commitment to the new anti-corruption drive.

The Asian region has a long history of corrupt politicians earning illicit billions during their years in power, and cleverly transferring their illicit gains to overseas bank accounts that have proven untouchable or untraceable.

"One of the best ways to fight corruption is to follow the money to where it ends up and to recover the assets that have been corruptly removed from a country, a government or a people," said Noble.

The answer to State corruption is simple, but almost impossible. Society can reduce corruption by greatly limiting the money and assets available to the government, which of course would also reduce the number of government personnel. Cut taxes and regulations. Increase citizen (private) responsibility.

The US had a great advantage when it created its federal governmant in the late 18th century. There wasn't much government money to manipulate or steal; so miniscule corruption. But the forces working to install corruption (big government) were there even before the first Congress convened. Still, we had it pretty good through the 19th century. But with the administrations of T. Roosevelt, Wilson. and Taft big government and big corruption arrived and the US government has been out of control ever since.

The seminar is cancelled - someones run off with the budget for tea and cakes, and also the chairs have all been 'lost'

As a simple first step to stop government corruption we need to know everyone who is receiving money from the government.

In these days of databases on computers it is simple to provide a list of all payments each year by value and name (and a lot of other detail) so that payments can be scrutinised.

When I was Finance Director of a public company, for transparency as part of the annual audit, I used to provide a list to the company auditors of all payments made by the company during the year (along with all the bank statements so they could be verified).

I recognise that in the case of a government it would be a rather large list, but the fact that it would be published and in the public domain would scare off many that are involved or tempted to be involved in corruption.

I am certain governments could do this for their citizens - but they may be too embarrassed or ashamed to let their citizens know how their money is being spent, especially when compared to their election promises

Good argument - but with a major flaw.

The corruption here in Thailand is limited to government employees receiving money from others for services rendered or not rendered. The problem is not government employees sending money to people that don't deserve it / haven't earned it - except of course in the case of public officials who are on the payroll.

Doc wrote:Good argument - but with a major flaw.

The corruption here in Thailand is limited to government employees receiving money from others for services rendered or not rendered. The problem is not government employees sending money to people that don't deserve it / haven't earned it - except of course in the case of public officials who are on the payroll.

Kickbacks for overpriced services is a common form of corruption here and other countries as well!

Doc wrote:.........The corruption here in Thailand is limited to government employees receiving money from others for services rendered or not rendered........

My comment was based on my knowledge of the UK and its government which I was then using as a premise that government and its operations are probably not too different from country to country.

In the west, much of the original money that provides kickbacks starts in the government because of its lack of transparency - business in any country will generally not operate all that ethically if its own government is a willing party to corruption.

As a couple of purely hypothetical examples, if a new airport were to be built and there was to be a requirement say for fire engines and x-ray machines, the payments for fire engines or x-ray machines could be seen by the companies that had failed to obtain contracts for them which would help them raise questions on the legitimacy of the awarding of the contracts.

Where there is corruption it is vital to have a starting point for

Will you have to give the guy on the door a backhander to enter the seminar?