What does the OECD have in mind against corruption
The OECD organized the International Anti-Corruption Day to put the fight against corruption at the center of various government initiatives. Alessandra Servidori's post
Corruption is a widespread phenomenon throughout Europe, but in Italy it is even more so. According to the data of the European Regional Competitiveness Index, data that refer only to the perception of the phenomenon, not to the real one. We are well aware that perception is an idea linked to politics, public administration, etc…, something else to have been involved, and therefore the problem is sometimes overestimated, sometimes underestimated.
We have as a reference a 2017 Istat survey that brought out the extent of corruption with greater precision, investigating knowledge and involvement in illegal acts by monitoring complaints (given that the complicity of corrupt and corrupters may not bring out the phenomenon in its actual size). At the end of 2020 the OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, organized the International Anti-Corruption Day to put the fight against corruption at the center of the various initiatives of governments, one of the great priorities, since that for all countries corruption represents one of the greatest threats to economic growth, undermines the values of democracy, and is one of the non-secondary causes of social inequalities.
Interesting are the data from the GF Global Forum Report on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in which 100 state jurisdictions in 2019 automatically exchanged information relating to 84 million financial accounts representing assets for approximately 10,000 billion euros on analysis of the Bank secret. Report that will be fully analyzed also during the next G20 coordinated by Italy, bringing to knowledge fundamental data on the underground economy.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also highlighted the urgency to tackle the "global scourge" of corruption. OECD has a new work program aimed at dealing with crisis and emergency situations, called Global Law Enforcement Response to Corruption in Crisis Situation and at the same time OECD intervenes in support of the activities of governments with Recommendations for Public Integrity, with the aim of transform any isolated actions into a global strategy.
It is certainly positive that the Forum has carried out specialized training on the subject for several thousand public managers and one of the interventions of increasing importance aims to regulate lobbying activities and promote their transparency and fairness. Over the years – and even before the great crisis of 2008 – lobbies have assumed enormous power: they operate with great financial means, with great skills, on behalf of private interests, often in conflict with the public interest of states and communities. The lobbyists worked to get approved projects, programs and legislative reforms strongly desired by the banking world, insurance and finance in general and beyond. Therefore, the guidelines that the OECD has developed to help governments in the fight against corruption that is penetrating state-controlled companies are important and we know that the damage and risks are enormous when corruption and crime penetrate and control public structures and of course private ones.
The OECD – particularly active in the fight against tax crimes – has made it possible in the last decade to collect more than 107 billion euros for the tax authorities, through voluntary emergence programs, investigations on offshore centers and other measures.
The OECD also favored the creation of the Anti Corruption Working Group within the G20 to promote the convergence of action between the Member States and to support the application of standards of behavior and intervention. This year the Italian presidency of the G20 would make the international fight against corruption a priority.
The commitment of the Global Forum and the OECD for 2021 is to keep the exchange of information between participating countries high and punctual, despite the restrictions imposed by the global health crisis, to re-elaborate and strengthen cooperation in the tax field so that it does not slow down, through a new Task Force on Risk to identify in advance the onset of risks with respect to the implementation and compliance with the standards relating to the exchange of information.
We are well aware that as far as our country is concerned, the fight against corruption will be successful only if the reputation of companies, CEOs, managers and public administrations is really high. We hope that the Italian government will identify competent personalities to work on these very important issues for our future.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-ha-in-mente-locse-contro-la-corruzione/ on Fri, 22 Jan 2021 10:17:44 +0000.