For Transparency International the London Anti-Corruption Summit, taking place on May 12, 2016, provides a unique opportunity for global leaders to adopt concrete, ambitious commitments that can be implemented over the next five years.
This briefing sets out just some of the most important specific actions and agreements that are needed for the Summit to be a success. The Summit is also expected to put forward additional initiatives that may help ensure that a comprehensive approach is taken to tackling corruption. At the very least, the summit must deliver on:
- preventing corruption
- ending impunity for those who benefit from corrupt acts and
- empowering and supporting citizens to report corruption
World leaders must guarantee the commitments will be implemented over a defined period of time and that progress (or the lack of it) will be monitored. Once the dust has settled, global leaders cannot be allowed to walk away with yet another lofty communique of high principled intent and no game plan for implementation.
A key prerequisite for a successful Summit is that the host Government of the United Kingdom (UK) gets its own house in order to ensure credibility on the global stage. The UK has many challenges with domestic corruption to address, including risks identified in areas such as political funding, peer appointments, police corruption, procurement and local government.
The UK should also require its own Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, which host hundreds of thousands of secret companies and legal entities, to publish time-bound plans of action for publishing registries that show the names of the real people – beneficial owners – of the companies and legal entities incorporated there.
