Oppenheimer -Summit's goals on corruption
Andres Oppenheimer
------------------------------------------------------------------------Posted on Tue, Jan. 13, 2004
ANDRES OPPENHEIMER: The Oppenheimer Report
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
Summit's antigraft deal could be useful
MONTERREY, Mexico - The 15-page agreement scheduled to be signed today by President Bush and 33 other democratic leaders of the hemisphere contains
some promising agreements to tackle a key issue -- corruption.
But before I hit you with my usual dose of skepticism about these grandiose summit agreements, let me share with you three interesting novelties on
the corruption front that I found buried in the wide-ranging ''Declaration of Nuevo Leon,'' an otherwise largely inconsequential document named after
the state in which the meeting is taking place.
??For the first time, private sector corruption -- that is, corrupt practices by multinational corporations -- is addressed collectively by the
region's leaders.
''We express our concern regarding corrupt, illegal and fraudulent practices in the administration of some national and transnational corporations,
that may have a negative impact on economies, in particular those of developing countries,'' the draft declaration says..
PREVIOUSLY EXCLUDED
Until now, this issue was taboo in hemispheric meetings: Leaders didn't mind going after corrupt officials -- especially if they belonged to the
previous government -- but they didn't want to mess with multinational corporations. But scandals in Argentina, Peru, Mexico and other countries
involving multinational corporations that reportedly bribed public officials in recent years have drawn calls to crack down on both sides of the
corruption equation: not only on the hand that receives but on the hand that gives.
''This is very significant,'' said Ron Scheman, head of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development. ``You cannot effectively fight
corruption unless you also put the corruptor in jail.''
??On the government side, the agreement will state the leaders' commitment ''to deny refuge to corrupt officials, those who corrupt them, and their
assets.'' When corrupt officials take refuge in other countries, participating leaders will ''take steps to extradite them to their home countries,''
the document says.
This is great news because Latin American presidents facing corruption charges have long benefited from an informal mutual protection club, whereby
their peers in neighboring countries offered them political asylum whenever they were facing legal troubles.
??Also on the government corruption front, the summit's final agreement calls on participating countries to ``return corruption-tainted funds to their
legitimate owners.''
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday turned over to Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo $20 million found in U.S. bank accounts linked to
Peru's former corrupt intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.
HOPING FOR MORE
''This is only the beginning,'' Toledo told The Herald later, adding that there is an estimated $3 billion of Peruvian corruption-linked money in
foreign banks.
Foreign ministers were still struggling Monday with a U.S. proposal to include a paragraph calling on countries to prohibit participation of
corruption-ridden countries in future summits.
SWEEPING OPPOSITION
Virtually all Latin American countries opposed the U.S. proposal, saying that it would be hard to determine with fairness which country is corrupt,
and such a requirement could lend itself to political manipulation.
Granted, most of these summits' final declarations are full of empty promises, which not even the leaders can remember a few days after they sign
them. And even when they remember them, these agreements are most often shelved for lack of funding because finance ministers -- who, incidentally,
are not present here -- tend to see them as outlandish creations of their foreign ministry colleagues.
But occasionally they lay the groundwork for concrete deals that can have an impact. The 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec, for instance, produced
a vaguely worded agreement to punish countries that break democratic rule, which five months later resulted in the more tangible Inter-American
Democratic Charter.
The same could happen with this declaration. If participating countries use their planned meetings in coming months to put teeth into today's expected
summit declaration, we could see an Inter-American Anti-Corruption Charter later this year. It would not stop corruption, but it could help make it
more difficult for sleazy officials and their cronies in the business world to continue robbing their countries blind.
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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