Date: 05/04/2007

Source: Department of Public Service and Administration

Title: Fraser-Moleketi: Closing remarks Global Forum Five on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity
Closing remarks, Global Forum V, Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi

Your Excellency, Former Heads of State,
Your Excellency, Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and High Commissioners
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
All protocols observed

It is South Africa's honour to have hosted you here in Johannesburg. I do trust that you have found this Global Forum worth your while. I for one am proud and immensely impressed with your active engagement with the many complex issues which have been discussed over the past few days. I must also commend all of you for the hard work and the tremendous spirit of co-operation which prevailed in your efforts to reach consensus on the Declaration adopted yesterday. The efforts of the open ended working group working on the Declaration demonstrated that good will and a pro-active approach to common purpose can carry us a very long way indeed.

This spirit of collaboration and co-operation bodes well for our ongoing collective effort to prevent and combat corruption. The Declaration is inspiring and it is an accurate reflection of the collective will of all of us and those whom we represent.

Over the past few days we have travelled a long journey of discovery and rediscovery together. As many as 900 delegates from 110 countries and all the regions have been present for our deliberations. Thirty two Ministers and 15 Deputy Ministers have been in attendance. This alone is testimony to our commitment to preventing and combating corruption.

In my remarks to the Africa Forum a month ago I implored the delegates, as we all engaged rigorously in our analysis of corruption, to imagine a world that exists without corruption. As Ben Okri has said, "The worst realities of our age are manufactured realities. It is therefore our task, as creative participants in the universe, to re dream our world. The fact of possessing imagination means that everything can be re dreamed." (www.thinkexist.com/quotes/ben_okri/).

I am convinced that we need to exercise leadership and judgment in the building of a world that rests on the principles of common bonds of humanity. This is not an impossibility, for as Okri continues: "The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering."

At this Global Forum we have re-dreamed. And in re dreaming we have forged new ties to take forward the sharing of experiences and good practice. We can be justifiably proud of our achievements, as reflected in the Rapporteur's Report. We have been enriched by the discussions and will emerge with our commitment to fighting corruption immeasurably strengthened.

President Thabo Mbeki in opening Global Forum on Monday emphasised the linkages between corruption and the persistence of poverty and inequality, and the widening of the gap between rich and poor. He said that corruption is inimical to pro-poor sustainable growth and development. Countries, especially African countries, are striving against the odds to attain the Millennium Development Goals and corruption places further obstacles in their path. In striving to achieve the Millennium Development Goals we must put into practice our traditional democratic communal values of humanity, ubuntu and ujamaa. All countries must be audacious enough to dream of a corruption-free world.

We have achieved what many, at the outset thought unthinkable - consensus on a Declaration which we adopted unanimously � and even before the final day of Forum, and all of you need to be congratulated on that effort � it truly demonstrates political will and common purpose. But more, it demonstrates a highly infectious and hopefully positively contagious spirit of co-operation that will carry over into other global endeavours.

The hallmarks of this Global Forum have definitely been co-operation, conciliation, sharing, partnerships and a deep and abiding commitment to achieving consensus.

We have reached consensus at this Global Forum on a Declaration that is a landmark Declaration. We have come to a common understanding that corruption takes place within all sectors of society as well as at the interface between the public, private and civil society sectors. We have reached a common understanding that as part of the global effort towards the prevention and combating of corruption, governments and civil society have a duty to work together to develop national integrity systems. Leadership writ large has a responsibility to articulate a vision and a value system underpinning these systems. The reason for this, as I suggested on Monday and it is worth repeating, is that ethical behaviour, while highly desirable, respected and valued, cannot be assumed.

Therefore the importance of the values of integrity, morality and ethics, not only for governmental institutions, bureaucracy, and the private sector, but for the entire society is critical. If these values are inculcated into the whole framework of society, the individual, family, community and the nation are strengthened to counter corruption through the internalisation of a code of ethics and values.

Global Forum V has come to the understanding that preventing and combating corruption should not be conducted by countries in isolation, but that a collective approach is required. Similarly as the Declaration has urged, transnational corrupt activities must be fought collectively at a transnational level through the sharing of anti-corruption good practice and exchange of information on policies, practices and measures as well as ways to strengthen co-operation.

This Global Forum will well be remembered because it came to a shared understanding of corruption as being far more nuanced and far more complicated that the simple corrupter-corrupted relationship. We not only agreed that an alternate conceptualisation was long overdue, but in our work and in the Declaration we made this a reality.

We collectively made a huge contribution to the corruption/anti-corruption discourse. We have re-appropriated the discourse by going beyond the simple corrupter-corrupted relationship. We have deliberately and with good reason chosen not to identify with current discourses which focus solely on perceptions and blame.

We have agreed that it is far more useful in developing a common understanding of corruption to focus on the interface between politics and economics. As we have argued throughout, a broader conception and definition of corruption must recognise that corrupt practices take place in the interface between the public sector, the private sector and even the civil society sector.

This Forum has repeatedly and consistently underscored the importance of rooting our efforts at prevention and our fight against all forms of corruption in a value system that draws on traditional communal values and on democratic values. Traditional African society was forged on the basis of communal values - Ubuntu "I am what I am because of who we all are" which contrasts markedly with the values which emphasise individual wealth acquisition at all costs � even through corrupt means.

As we develop our economies and our countries, let us be mindful of our deliberations at this Global Forum that we cannot have development at all costs. We cannot develop by allowing a permissive environment for corruption to flourish. Corruption is detrimental to long term sustainable development. Corruption costs and Grand Corruptions costs even more. Corruption as President Thabo Mbeki said, is inimical to development, it perpetuates inequality, increases wealth and asset gaps between rich and poor on national, regional, continental and global scales. We all agree it is illegal and it can no longer be tolerated. It must be eradicated. And in the Declaration we have collectively dedicated ourselves to its eradication.

At this Global Forum we have demonstrated to the world the seriousness with which we have deliberated and the seriousness with which we dedicated ourselves to preventing and fighting corruption. And we enter that transparent global arena determined to work in a collaborative fashion with other nation states, for in our collective wisdom we have agreed, and rightly so, that no nation is free of corruption, that it benefits the few and harms the many. And we have agreed that we need inter state co-operation on a number of fronts and in a number of spheres to be effective in our fight against corruption.

We have come to fully appreciate that the conceit of corruption lies in its ability to implicate, its complicity and its ability to violate the laws of nation states and flout international conventions and treaties. Through the presentations by colleagues we have come to appreciate that the losses that accrue from a culture of permissiveness with respect to corruption and from corruption itself are more than monetary - the losses include a loss of revenue, loss of trust, loss of values, loss of credibility and legitimacy and a loss of the democratic ethos and impulse within institutions and organisations.

Under conditions of democracy, we agreed, the state needs to take the lead in preventing, combating and eliminating corruption. The political cost of corruption is that it undermines democracy, weakens state institutions and undermines responsibility, accountability and legitimacy. Corruption alienates citizens from the very officials they have elected and also alienates people from each other. Corruption weakens democratic processes and public order.

We have come to appreciate that the conceptualisation of corruption now needs to denote the idea of corruption as a voluntary and for the powerless an involuntary contract and transaction between two or more parties, those who give and those who take, in exchange for mutually beneficial favours and gains. There is a supply side and a demand side to corruption. Corruption is not restricted to purely commercial transactions but may also be present when citizens seek to access social services such as health, welfare and education services. A bribe may be demanded by a public official (or where privatisation of essential public services has occurred by private individuals), in order to deliver the service or grant access to the service to which the citizen is entitled, and which the official is obliged to deliver.

Certainly corruption includes theft, fraud, bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage and the laundering of illicit proceeds. But we have come to an understanding that the broader interpretation of the concept of corruption also defines it relation to human rights, poverty and underdevelopment, and in relation to the siphoning of much valued resources from the provision of social services. This marks a significant departure from the traditional narrow and restricted definition, which fixed its gaze on the recipient of the bribe in the South while ignoring the corrupter in the North.

Presenters at this Global Forum have argued that while good governance is necessary in order to combat corruption, corruption undermines good governance. Corruption is thus a governance challenge. As the discourse on corruption has progressively developed, the importance of a sound National Integrity System (NIS) as a foundation for tackling corruption has been highlighted. It comprises the building blocks necessary for the long-term fight against corruption and other forms of unethical and anti-social behaviour. The core elements of a national integrity system have to include the value system of a society.

In the Declaration you all concurred that all countries represented at Global Forum V must ensure speedy ratification and accession to regional anti-corruption instruments and the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Adherence to UNCAC is an indicator of states' commitment to fighting corruption � it is noteworthy that over 50% of African countries have ratified so far. The UNCAC as the Declaration notes is the "� as the primary global framework for action and co-operation among governments and between governments, the private sector and other non-state actors."

Much has been achieved since the first Global Forum. Evidence of our progress, as mentioned by Mr Costa on Tuesday, is the prosecution of Chief Executives of large corporations such as Enron, Parmalat, Siemens. In addition several corrupt governments have been voted out of office in past two to four years. However, much work remains to be done.

We welcome the World Bank's governance and anti-corruption strategy. Similarly we welcome the declaration action points from the 12th International Anti-Corruption Conference held in Guatemala in November 2006. We are aware that there is a need to implement the decisions of the first Conference of the State Parties held in Jordan in December. We welcome the Second Session of the Conference of State Parties to be held in Bali, Indonesia January 2008 and we urge all of you to attend the conference and to sustain the momentum generated here over the past few days.

In a ministerial session the Minister from Sweden highlighted the need to turn the international conventions into concrete actions, and argued that the future work of Global Forums must be linked to the implementation of international instruments.

Participants at the Forum continually stressed the importance of partnerships between government the private sector and civil society in preventing and fighting corruption. And in the same spirit they also called for greater co-operation and partnerships among states.

It was also noted that the politicians must provide leadership in preventing and combating corruption, and that leadership has three main tasks, (i) to speak out against corruption, secondly, (ii) to provide adequate resources to agencies that deal with corruption and, (iii) to ensure that such agencies that have sufficient independence to take action against corruption.

We can all agree that the impact of corruption is universal in nature. It impacts on investment, business growth and development, creates risks and uncertainty, distorts resource allocation, undermines democracy, exacerbates poverty and integrity and mistrust. Corruption does not promote development it distorts development. For these reasons alone we must take the Declaration and its recommendations very seriously and where possible we ought to move speedily to give effect to the recommendations.

I am very proud to announce that yesterday South Africa acceded to the Working Group on Bribery of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Convention on The Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions.

I am also pleased to announce that we have reached agreement that we will soon be convening the International Organising Committee (IOC), augmented with broader regional and non-state representation, to undertake consultations and make recommendations regarding the future of the global forum process as well as its relationship to the UNCAC and other co-operative frameworks. Within 6 months South Africa will convene the expanded IOC and its work will begin in earnest.

We continue to consult with respect to the host of Global Forum VI and as soon as that process is completed we will make the formal announcement to all of you who are on the official database and we will post it on the website.

In his speech to us on Monday President Thabo Mbeki said that the masses of people whom we represent, "� will be entitled to ask of us what progress we have made in the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and what we have done to fight corruption, which we well know hinders the realisation of the MDGs � They will be correct to inquire from us what we have agreed to do collectively in the fight against corruption so as to better enable us to deliver on our vision of a corruption free world."

In conclusion, and in answer to the questions posed by the President we can truly be unequivocal and say that at this Global Forum in Johannesburg, we have accomplished much and we have laid the foundation to accomplish even more.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Public Service and Administration
5 April 2007