Since 2003, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UN Convention against Corruption, 9 December has been observed as "International Anti-Corruption Day."
Corruption, whether through government graft or company tax evasion, impedes development and sustainable economic growth, as is evident in the dozens of countries where oil, gas and mining wealth enriches a few at the expense of the public good.
The development agency Tearfund, working as part of the international Publish What You Pay coalition, is calling on members of the European Parliament to "unearth the truth on corruption in the oil, mining and gas industry" by supporting recent proposals to require companies to publish payments to governments.
The petition says, "About 3.5 billion people live in countries rich in oil, gas and minerals. Yet secrecy and corruption often result in this wealth going missing and not benefiting the people living in these countries, especially those living in poverty," and adds that through transparency in company payments to governments, "we can expose resource misuse and corruption, and potentially release billions of pounds to tackle poverty."
ReliefWeb marked the day with an update on Australian anti-corruption activities at home and in the greater Asia-Pacific region, including its new pilot implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). And Transparency International France announced the launch of an anti-corruption report on 13 French institutions "to determine their role in the 'National Integrity System.'"
RWI has participated in several recent events with a focus on reducing corruption, including the annual conference of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development and the 7-8 December meeting of the Open Government Partnership, which has just concluded in Brazil.
