Anti-corruption summit in London

devex published an article on May 13th, 2016 about the recently held anti-corruption summit in London .  Excerpts of it are reproduced here.  Do please tweet the author for any comments otherwise get back to this site for any thought sharing.

Anti-corruption summit outcomes: Promises for the world's poorest

Written by Molly Anders

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari doesn’t want an apology from UK Prime Minister David Cameron for calling his country “fantastically corrupt.”   What he wants, he told audience members at the civil society event, “Tackling Corruption Together” in London on Wednesday, is the return of assets stolen from Nigeria and currently being held in British banks.

Speaking ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday, Buhari underlined the role developed countries play in propagating corruption, money laundering and illicit cash flows, often cutting into the potential domestic resources of developing countries and hurting the world’s poorest.

The summit was convened by Cameron in the wake of the Panama leaks, which revealed the identities and financial activities of more than 200 clients of Panama-based corporate service provider Mossack-Fonseca. While largely technically legal, the revelations turned the spotlight on the exploitative effects of tax havens and offshore finance on developing economies and brought renewed calls for international action against corruption.

Adrian Lovett, interim deputy chief executive of the ONE Campaign told Devex by phone that he was “pleased how much of that poverty agenda was central at the summit as the first and primary reason to push forward in the fight against corruption.”

Another promising shift for developing countries, said Stephen Twigg, member of the Parliament and chair of the International Development Committee, could be the announcement of a new “institutional integrity network” designed to foster developing countries’ capacities to fight corruption.

“We look forward to learning more about how U.K. institutions, such as the National Audit Office and National Crime Agency, will support the strengthening of counterpart agencies in countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya and, consequently, those countries’ efforts to achieve SDG 16,” Twigg said in an email to Devex.

Commitments for change

Among the summit’s most significant achievements were commitments from six countries — Great Britain, Afghanistan, Kenya, France, the Netherlands and Nigeria — to establish open registries of the owners of companies operating within their borders. . .

Read more in the above mentioned publication.