Prime Minister David Cameron led officials from dozens of nations in pledging yesterday to “substantially reduce graft and bribery in all its forms” following an anti-corruption summit.
“Corruption is at the heart of so many of the world’s problems,” they said in a joint declaration. “We must overcome it if our efforts to end poverty, promote prosperity and defeat terrorism and extremism are to succeed.”
“We commit to expose corruption wherever it is found, to pursue and punish those who perpetrate, facilitate or who are complicit in it, (and) support the communities who have suffered from it,” they said.
Cameron promised Britain would take the lead by launching an international anti-corruption centre, sharing information on company ownership and forcing foreign property buyers to reveal the original source of their funds.
“I believe that corruption is the cancer at the heart of so many problems we face in the world,” he said, highlighting problems including poverty, terrorism and money laundering.
“First of all, what we’re doing is to expose corruption, where the absolute key is transparency,” he told delegates from 40 nations, including 11 heads of state.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the summit could be “the beginning of something different.”
“I’ve been shocked by the degree to which I find corruption pandemic in the world today,” Kerry said, adding that it “destroys nation states.”
“We have to say no safe harbour anywhere, and get the global community to come together,” he said.
About a dozen protesters from anti-poverty group ONE gathered close to the summit, shouting slogans and holding a large placard reading “It’s a scandal, 170 billion dollars stolen. Stop tax havens.”