ISLAMABAD: Stressing the need of taking bold, clear and concrete initiatives to strengthen the existing international framework to prevent corruption, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman former Justice Javed Iqbal on Friday said seven trillion dollars in stolen assets are parked in financial haven countries and jurisdictions which should immediately return to the state of origin.
Addressing the United Nations (UN) General Assembly special session against corruption virtually, NAB chairman said the recent report of the high-level panel on financial accountability, transparency and integrity has revealed that due to political and official corruption, as well as crime and tax evasion, trillions of dollars flow out of developing countries each year.
He said this year marks 15 years since the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) entered into force.
While we have made some progress during this period, corruption continues to hold back development and deprive people of their rights in far too many places around the world, he said.
The NAB chairman said flight of these vast resources from the developing countries is a principal cause of their under-development, poverty, inequality and political instability. Corruption is estimated to cost the world at least $2.6 trillion annually, approximately five percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), he said, adding that it is estimated that $1.26 trillion is lost by developing countries to corruption, bribery, theft, and tax evasion each year. This is approximately nine times official development assistance funding.
He said strengthening of international cooperation and efficiently prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute corruption, as well as to apply effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties and recover criminal assets are mandatory for fight against corruption.
Fighting corruption is a fundamental precondition for upholding the rule of law, peace and security, achieving sustainable development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, he said.
“We believe that corruption should be prevented in all its forms and a culture of rejection of corrupt practices should be fostered at all levels,” he said, adding that asset recovery is one of the fundamental principles of the UNCAC.
He said there is a growing concern that lack of political will, unnecessary delays, procedural complexities, bureaucratic hurdles and legal barriers in requested states, as well as high cost of asset recovery, continue to impede effective international cooperation in the area of asset recovery.
The NAB chairman said that Pakistan’s commitment to eradicating corruption remains clear and firm.
“We have established a comprehensive legal and institutional framework for controlling and combating corruption,” he said, adding that “we have also taken steps to improve institutional capacity and align domestic laws with international norms and standards embodied in the UNCAC.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021