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Fraud and Corruption Workshop

Opening Remarks by
Lyaziza Sabyrova
Officer-in-Charge, Kyrgyz Republic Resident Mission

15 May 2008
Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

Ladies and Gentlemen – good morning and welcome.

First I would like to extend my warm welcome to all of you to this Fraud and Corruption Workshop. We are delighted to see you here, and hope you – and also we – will be able to benefit from the discussions.

Much has happened in the area of anticorruption and governance over the past ten years – and as you will hear, these subjects – that were hardly mentioned back then – are now acknowledged as important (essential) elements in the fight against poverty.

ADB – and the other Multilateral Development Banks – have prepared policies, actions plans, strategies, procedures etc in support of governance and anticorruption.

ADB – as the first MDB – approved a governance policy in 1995. Subsequently we adopted an anticorruption policy in 1998.

As a consequence of the Anticorruption Policy, we established the Anticorruption Unit within the Office of the Auditor General. This Unit was “upgraded” to the INTEGRITY Division in 2005. This Division is responsible for organizing this workshop – and I am pleased to see that they have managed to involve some very knowledgably ADB staff in the two days sessions – and I am confident that they will be able to keep you awake.

Apart from arranging this workshop and other seminars aimed at raising awareness of fraud and corruption, the Integrity Division is identified as the focal point for dealing with allegations of fraud and corruption. In addition ADB sees that ADB financed projects and ADB staff adhere to the highest ethical standards in its operation.

The problem of corruption is one of the most enduring dilemmas confronting society throughout history – the nature and scope of corruption may change, but we can find the phenomenon at all times and everywhere – in developed as well as in developing countries.

The problem may become more endemic if concrete actions are not taken to reduce the corrosive impact of corruption in a sustainable way. Today we are talking about strategy that goes beyond economic growth. To ensure that the benefits of growth are widespread, special measures are needed to include the poorer sections of society, who would not normally get excluded from the normal economic mainstream. In other words, we need an "inclusive" growth strategy. Anticorruption has to be one of the pillars of inclusive growth strategy if poor are to be benefited. We all know that the harmful effects of corruption are especially severe on the poor mainly because they mostly rely on the provision of public services, and are least capable of paying the extra costs that are associated with bribery, fraud, and misappropriation.

This workshop is intended to raise the awareness of the problem, to support you in your fight against corruption, to help establish a partnership between you and ADB in the fight against corruption – and to establish a mutual recognition of the problems we all face.

The policies, strategies, reports, speeches etc. to eliminate corruption or even to reduce corruption are futile if the governments do not recognize corruption having devastating impact on its and private sector functioning properly. Allow me to slightly rephrase what Kofi Annan – the former Secretary General of the UN, once said “Without your active commitment and support, there is a danger that universal values will remain little more than fine worded documents whose anniversaries we will celebrate and make speeches about – but with limited impact on the lives of ordinary people” – in other words – let us have commitment to create impact on the lives of poorer people through the fight against corruption.

I hope this get-together will give you a small but useful platform to work from (and some useful tools to work with) in our mutual fight against corruption.

Thank you very much.