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G8 SUMMIT: NGO Approval Tinged With Dissatisfaction

Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN, Jul 17 2006 (IPS) - Satisfaction mingled with disappointment as civil society organisations analysed the outcome of the G8 summit that concluded Monday in St Petersburg.

“We have reason to be satisfied with the G8’s statement on fighting high-level corruption because it points to a growing understanding of corruption,” Transparency International’s Jesse Garcia told IPS on telephone from St Petersburg in Russia.

“In fact the days might soon be over when public officials accepting bribes could go scot free,” he said.

Transparency International (TI), based in Berlin, is the leading global non-governmental organisation devoted to combating corruption.

Garcia was referring to a statement of the heads of government of the G8 (Group of Eight countries – Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United States, Canada and Japan) in which they renewed their commitment to fight corruption, in particular at the highest levels, and to improve transparency and accountability.

They also agreed on an action plan committing themselves to:


– continue to investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials and those who bribe them;

– work with all the international financial centres and their private sectors to deny safe haven to assets illicitly acquired by individuals engaged in high level corruption;

– work together and with international and regional development institutions to rigorously combat fraud and corruption and misuse of public resources;

– support the global ratification and implementation of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and call upon those states that have not already ratified the convention to do so at the earliest date possible;

– ensure vigorous implementation of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Anti-bribery Convention by parties to the Convention;

– work towards including in regional and bilateral trade agreements provisions promoting transparency in government procurement and concessions, as well as provisions on trade facilitation; and

– fight vigorously against money laundering.

TI welcomed the G8 recognition of “the horrendous effects of corruption on development, democratic governance and the rule of law,” but said the G8 must do more. It has called upon Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States to ratify the UNCAC without further delay and to support robust monitoring.

“The G8 cannot prescribe anti-corruption and transparency measures that they themselves have not followed,” the TI said in a media release Monday.

But in contrast to the statement on fighting high-level corruption, the G8 statement on Global Energy Security had fallen short, Garcia said.

“Although the need to address corruption and governance in the extractives sector is mentioned, the statement offers no practical details on how this would be achieved,” he said.

The TI said in a media release: “The document’s vague language – a pledge to ‘take forward efforts’ to support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) – implies intention without specifying explicit actions. EITI mentions in two other summit documents add nothing in specificity.”

The TI statement quotes its chief executive David Nussbaum as saying: “We were looking for specific commitments from G8 nations on supporting and expanding the EITI. The statement leaves a cloud where there should be clarity. It steps back from the forceful and specific language we saw last year and fails to define milestones for progress.”

NGO groups point also to other shortcomings.

To begin with Africa was not on the agenda, ActionAid’s Alexandre Polack told IPS on phone from St Petersburg. After G8 leaders promised to make poverty history last year, this summit has been a damp squib, he said.

Commenting on the G8 decision to pause on Africa until the next summit in Germany, Polack said it was good news that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be putting Africa back on the agenda, but without immediate action there would be little progress, he said.

In a statement titled Update Africa, G8 emphasised the need for “urgently stepping up our efforts to achieve an ambitious and balanced outcome for the WTO (World Trade Organisation) Doha Round that gives developing countries – especially Least Developed Countries – improved access to global markets, builds trade capacity and allows developing countries to decide, plan and sequence their own economic policies.”

The G8 also commit themselves to “further work on Aid for Trade to help ensure that African countries are better able to participate in and benefit from the multilateral trading system.”

Polack said millions of poor people risk becoming even poorer under the trade deal currently on the table from the G8. But rich countries are still demanding that poor countries open their markets in return for small concessions that should have been delivered years ago.

“The aid for trade package emerging from St Petersburg is less ambitious than what was offered last December at the WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong,” Polack said.

ActionAid will highlight these and related issues in the coming months up to the next G8 summit in Germany he said.

 
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