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Corruption
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By Jak Jabes ( jjabes@adb.org )
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When 250 senior government officials, academics, media representatives, international and national nongovernment organization - NGO - representatives, and businesspeople convened in Manila in late September 1999 to discuss the issue of corruption and how to combat it in the Asia and Pacific region, none of them knew that they were sowing the seeds of an important initiative.
The meeting, sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and ADB, was a success in raising awareness about corruption.
As happens with such conferences and with a subject that is of actuality, delegates decided to continue the discussion, so they met in Seoul in December 2000.
But there was an important difference: the participants asked the two convening organizations to engage countries in action rather than conference.
Tasked with that challenge, OECD and ADB brought together a small group of experts to work on a draft action plan to combat corruption in the region. The plan was circulated to governments for feedback. Given the complexity of the issue and the language necessary to reach consensus, a second drafting meeting was called. The product of the group of experts was sent again to capitals for further consultation.
When the 3rd ADB-OECD Conference on Combating Corruption started in late November 2001 in Tokyo, the Action Plan had taken final form. On the last day of the conference, the representatives of the 23 participating countries sat in a big conference hall. The session to endorse the plan began with an impassioned speech by the Honorable Muhiddin Khan, Minister of Information of Bangladesh. ADB’s Shoji Nishimoto and OECD’s Rainer Geiger served as cochairs.
When the session was over, 17 participating governments had endorsed this international agreement, which became known as the Anticorruption Action Plan for Asia and the Pacific. Countries endorsing the Plan became members of the Steering Group of the ADB-OECD-led initiative. Despite agreeing with the tenor of the text, some representatives were unable to endorse it pending consultations in their countries.
The Action Plan is based on three pillars that address some of the thorniest issues governments face when fighting corruption: developing effective and transparent systems of public service, strengthening antibribery actions and promoting integrity in business operations, and supporting active public involvement.
By endorsing the Action Plan, the countries were agreeing to live by its implementation obligations. This means that every country endorsing the plan would identify one to three priority areas from the various actions possible under the three pillars and report reform progress to the Secretariat and Steering Group. The idea behind a Steering Group was the need to have peer discussion and review of corruption issues led by endorsing countries—rather than a process managed and owned only by the two international organizations.
Much has taken place since the conference in Tokyo. ADB and OECD make up the active Secretariat. A Steering Group meeting was held in Manila in late May 2002 to take stock of the Tokyo initiatives and plan further actions. Thirteen original endorsing group members attended the meeting, as did Kazakhstan, which by endorsing the Action Plan in May 2002 became the 18th country to join the initiative.
The countries that have endorsed the Action Plan are Bangladesh, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, and Vanuatu.
Following ADB’s reorganization, leadership of the initiative moved from the Strategy and Policy Department to the Regional and Sustainable Development Department.
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Countries are busy planning or implementing reforms and reporting on them.
The 2-day meeting in Manila was an intense exchange among representatives who learned from each other and shared their experiences on what worked and what was difficult to accomplish. Many around the table had found funding to undertake projects, while others that still require funding were assured that the Secretariat will present proposals to the international aid community.
Members of the international aid community, World Bank, Transparency International, and Pacific Basin Economic Council—all partners in this endeavor from its beginning—also attended this recent meeting.
The Action Plan involves a prominent role for NGOs and the private sector in raising public awareness and encouraging reform in cooperation with governments. It also emphasizes civil society’s role in monitoring public sector programs and activities.
Similar concerns motivate many of the countries to pursue the proposed reform projects. For example, several countries are working on strengthening their ethics codes and training their civil servants to abide by them; others are working on improving the investigation and prosecution capacities in their countries. Specific examples include the Republic of Korea’s efforts to put in place whistleblower protection laws, Malaysia’s opinion survey of citizens’ perceptions about anticorruption, and Indonesia’s attempts at curtailing misconduct in tax and customs agencies.
Lest anyone think that these meetings are debating roundtables, the Secretariat manages a tight reporting agenda, requiring countries to submit priority areas and report on progress in biyearly meetings conforming to prepared guidelines. The enthusiasm of the exchanges in the Steering Group shows the value in holding subregional roundtables, which will allow countries to go deeper into exchange and reform, and draw in their neighbors that have yet to endorse the Action Plan.
Steering Group members approved a strategy for the Initiative’s activities through the end of 2003. Other decisions involved publicizing projects on the initiative’s web site, looking into regional training possibilities, establishing a database, and continuing the effort to draw in non-endorsing countries of the region. Information on country projects will also be fed to regional departments of ADB to update them on developments and explore possible technical assistance support.
From the outset, the anticorruption initiative for Asia and the Pacific was to be realistic, patient, and focused on country ownership, putting in place a mechanism that in the long run will improve the climate for economic growth in the region.
Experience has shown that corruption will not go away overnight. Concerted action and international reinforcement are needed. It looks like the 18 countries that have endorsed this Action Plan are on their way to accomplishing just that.
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