These disclosures have revealed that the facilitators in the shape of safe havens for the custody and management of funds are, by and large, located in affluent countries and even some in countries categorized by Transparency International as "least corrupt countries." These can be end beneficiaries located in affluent countries too, notably the prime minister of Iceland at the time who had to resign under public protests. In the regime of money laundering and management of ill-gotten money abettor, facilitator and the end beneficiary are all severally and jointly responsible for their deeds and conducts.
"No country gets close to a perfect score in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016," the report continues. "Over two-thirds of the 176 countries and territories in this year's index fall below the midpoint of our scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The global average score is a paltry 43, indicating endemic corruption in a country's public sector. Top-scoring countries are far outnumbered mid- and low-scoring countries where citizens face the tangible impact of corruption on a daily basis."
The lower-ranked countries in the index are "plagued by untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like the police and judiciary. Even where anti-corruption laws are on the books, in practice they're often skirted or ignored. People frequently face situations of bribery and extortion, rely on basic services that have been undermined by the misappropriation of funds, and confront official indifference when seeking redress from authorities that are on the take."
The report elaborates "how collusion between businesses and politicians siphons off billions of dollars in revenue from national economies, benefiting the few at the expense of the many. This kind of systemic grand corruption violates human rights, prevents sustainable development and fuels social exclusion. Higher-ranked countries tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity for public officials, and independent judicial systems.
"But high-scoring countries can't afford to be complacent, either. While the most obvious forms of corruption may not scar citizens' daily lives in all these places, the higher-ranked countries are not immune to closed-door deals, conflicts of interest, illicit finance, and patchy law enforcement that can distort public policy and exacerbate corruption at home and abroad." The report presents a perspective driven out of Panama Papers which explains the global networking in institutionalized corruption.
"The Panama Papers revealed that a Panamanian law firm helped set up thousands of secret shell companies, many of them used by corrupt politicians, criminals and tax abusers around the world. The Odebrecht settlement with the US Department of Justice shed light on a company spending millions of dollars on bribing politicians and political parties across Latin America, as well as in two African countries, in order to win business contracts.
"The wealthy and powerful were also increasingly placed under the spotlight. The Chilean president's daughter-in-law was charged in a corruption case, and former Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is now under investigation on corruption charges, among several other examples.
"2016 was also notable in that large corruption investigations continued to jump across national borders. On cases from Odebrecht to Petrobras and FIFA, we see increasing communication and cooperation among regulators and law enforcers throughout the region and also with their counterparts in Europe and the United States.
"The fight against corruption has dominated discussion in the Americas for years now, from online and traditional media to mass protests. "One thing is clear though: even if 2016 marks the start of a shift towards more active enforcement by authorities in response to these public demands, there is still a long way to go. "The average score on the 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index was 44 out of 100 for the Americas. Anything below 50 indicates governments are failing to tackle corruption.
"In many parts of the region, impunity continues to be a major problem. Even in countries where cases of large-scale corruption are being tackled, the risk remains that this is the result of the efforts of a small group of brave individuals, rather than a long-term plan.
"Venezuela, with a score of 17, is the lowest scorer in the region. Last year saw hundreds of thousands of citizens protesting against the government. In Mexico, while the government tries to clean the country's image through a series of reforms, corruption scandals continue to escalate and the president's approval rating is at its lowest ever. With a loss of 5 points in [2016's] index, Mexico is the region's biggest decliner. Perhaps as a consequence of the Panama Papers revealing the offshore holdings of many public officials, commitments to continue anti-corruption efforts were on display throughout the year. For instance, at the London Anti-Corruption Summit in May 2016, commitments to increase transparency around the real owners of anonymous shell companies were made by Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
"Citizens must keep up pressure on leaders and continue to demand the transparent, accountable and functioning institutions. The region needs to make sure these and similar commitments are delivered on. Authorities in every country should ramp up their efforts to stop powerful corporate leaders and public officials from getting away with acts of Grand Corruption with impunity. This includes enhancing regional cooperation between law enforcement.
"As the Panama Papers showed, the combination of whistleblowers, big data and networked journalism is proving to be a powerful force for change. In coming years, governments in the Americas will have to become more transparent, or increasingly they will find transparency forced upon them." The analysis of Transparency International makes it apparent that "the phenomenon of corruption has global networking and dimensions and all countries segmented as least corrupt and, most corrupt, and those in between, have all been a part of it."
(The writer is President Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017