While the UK does fairly well on global corruption indices, the corruption risk is rising for the UK, according to the head of an anti-corruption pressure group.
Speaking at the Cambridge Symposium on Economic Crime on September 8, Robert Barrington, Executive Director, Transparency International UK said: “Post-referendum, with political and economic uncertainty added to existing threats on issues like security, corrupt capital flows and organised crime, the corruption risk is rising for the UK. Simple mitigation measures, put in place now, can help to head off problems that would end up undermining our society, our democracy and our economy. For that we need transparency and an effective Anti-Corruption Champion.”
“A strong appointment with a brief to provide a world class strategy, perhaps coupled with an independent accountability mechanism, would show that the Prime Minister [Theresa May] is living up to what she has been saying. At Transparency International, we await with great interest the new government’s decisions on these key areas.”
He pointed to UK shortcomings on open data, asking ‘who is checking the myriad public spending agencies in the UK are doing what they are meant to be doing? Generally nobody’. Also, the official role of Anti-Corruption Champion is unfilled.
For the speech in full visit the Transparency UK website.
Mr Barrington pointed to a ‘big gap’ in accountability. “Who is responsible for holding the government to account for its anti-corruption promises – or the absence of them?” He spoke also of how in many countries, it is clear where the buck stops for corruption, at least in theory. “In the UK, the role of Anti-Corruption Champion was created to fill a vacuum. That post remains important, and it needs the right person in the job. It may also need to be supplemented by an Independent Commissioner.”
Speaking earlier at the annual event at Jesus College, the Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, outlined the Government’s intention to follow through on the commitments made at the London Anti-Corruption Summit in May. For more on the 2016 event, titled ‘Economic Crime – where does the buck stop? Who is responsible – facilitators, controllers and or their advisers?’ visit http://crimesymposium.org/.
Beforehand, co-chair of the event, Prof Barry AK Rider said: “In recent years we have seen financial institutions hit by vast financial penalties for often simply failing to adequately monitor, discourage or control the conduct of others. Indeed, there are widely different views around the world as to whether the authorities should focus on institutions – with deep pockets, controllers – who are paid to take responsibility, or the individual? Unless we are able to render responsibility for the protection of our societies and the promotion of integrity practical, proportionate and reasonable, we stand the risk of causing great damage not only to those immediately implicated, but their stakeholders and, indeed, the rest of us.”
