Corruption is one of the greatest enemies of progress in our time; yet when it comes to tackling corruption, the international community has looked the other way for too long, said Prime Minister David Cameron in a speech in Singapore on a visit to south-east Asia.
The PM was speaking at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Tackling corruption isn’t just morally right. It’s economically right too, Cameron said. “Companies that become complicit in paying bribes find that they face higher costs, then embark on contracts that may never be honoured, they operate in a false environment that can change suddenly and dramatically, and they incur reputational damage for being complicit in a corrupt system.”
He admitted that Britain too must get its house in order – “and we are. And that is why the UK government has legislated to ensure that from next year, Britain will become the first major country to establish a publicly accessible central registry showing who really owns and controls all British companies. This will open up a new era of corporate transparency in Britain.”
He spoke of £122 billion of property in England and Wales owned by offshore companies and some high-value properties – particularly in London – being bought by people overseas through anonymous shell companies, “some of them with plundered or laundered cash. Just last week, there were allegations of links between a former Kazakh secret police chief and a London property portfolio worth nearly £150m. I’m determined that the UK must not become a safe haven for corrupt money from around the world. We need to stop corrupt officials or organised criminals using anonymous shell companies to invest their ill-gotten gains in London property, without being tracked down.”
He added that London will host an ‘Anti-Corruption Summit’ next year.
For the speech in full visit – https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/tackling-corruption-pm-speech-in-singapore.
