2006 Press Releases
President Bush announces National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts against Kleptocracy
August 11, 2006
On August 10, United States President George W. Bush announced a new component of his strategy to fight corruption around the world, pledging to confront high-level, large-scale corruption by public officials,and target the proceeds of their corrupt acts. Kleptocracy is a threat to both developing and developed countries and their citizens. Corruption by senior officials in executive, judicial, legislative, or other official positions in government can destabilize whole societies and destroy the aspirations of their peoples for a better way of life. The new national strategy builds on the President's commitment made with the G-8 Leaders at their recent Summit in St. Petersburg, to promote legal frameworks and a global financial system that will reduce the opportunities for kleptocracies to develop and will deny safe haven to corrupt officials, those who corrupt them, and the proceeds of corrupt activity.
Presidential Leadership on Combating Kleptocracy
President Bush unveiled his National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts against Kleptocracy, a new component of his strategy to fight corruption around the world, pledging to confront high-level, large-scale corruption by public officials, and target the proceeds of their corrupt acts. A copy of the President's Kleptocracy Strategy and with other briefing materials can be found at http://www.state.gov/p/inl.
Corruption threatens democracy and economic development: High-level, large-scale corruption by public officials threatens democracies, hinders economic development, and robs nations and their peoples of their futures. Kleptocratic behavior strips the people who need them most of opportunities, undermines sound public financial management and accountability, discourages foreign investors, stifles economic growth and development, and undermines faith in democracy and rule of law. Corruption used to be accepted as a way of doing business. Now, the international community is banding together to make the
world an inhospitable place for corrupt officials and their assets.
Corrupt senior public officials who use their public office to steal millions of dollars from
their governments and citizens are kleptocrats. Whether through bribery or embezzlement, these leaders siphon from public projects, such as schools, hospitals, roads, public water works and food assistance for their personal enrichment. Especially in developing countries, citizens are left to do without - the people who have the least suffer the most. Examples include: Sani Abacha (Nigeria - $2 Billion); Arnoldo Aleman (Nicaragua - tens of millions of dollars); Alberto Fujimori (Peru - hundreds of millions of dollars); Saddam Hussein (Iraq - $3 Billion).
USG International Efforts
International efforts to fight corruption and Kleptocracy: The G-8 leaders have repeatedly demonstrated their commitment to work together to address corruption, especially to work with developing country partners to combat kleptocracy by denying safe haven to corrupt officials, those who corrupt them, and their assets. In St. Petersburg, G-8 leaders further committed to prevent "corrupt holders of public office from gaining access to the fruits of their kleptocratic activities in our financial systems." Many international agreements establish standards for fighting corruption: UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC); Inter-American Convention Against Corruption; and OECD Convention against the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials. The UNCAC is fast becoming the focal point for global standards in fighting corruption. Other regional frameworks for fighting corruption underway: APEC Anticorruption and Transparency (ACT) Initiative; Governance for Development in Arab States Initiative (MENA states); Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO); and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Strategy to Internationalize Efforts against Kleptocracy
This strategy broadens USG efforts to combat corruption, by operationalizing our commitment to work with international partners to fight corruption made at the G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg. Among the 2006 National Security Strategy key objectives is combating corruption and denying safe haven to the corrupt. The President's strategy brings together federal agencies, including the Departments of State, Treasury, and Justice, to use their policy and law enforcement tools to: deny safe haven to corrupt individuals and those who corrupt them, and deny them access to the fruits of their corruption; prevent corrupt actors from using our financial institutions to launder the proceeds of their corruption; and work cooperatively without international partners to uncover illicitly-acquired assets, seize them, and return them to the people from whom they were stolen. The strategy combines existing tools, such as criminal investigation and prosecution mechanisms, with new approaches to international cooperation on law enforcement issues.
This strategy builds on a mechanism the President established in January 2004 to deny entry to corrupt individuals who wish to come into our country to do business or enjoy the fruits of their corruption. The President's Kleptocracy Strategy also complements the fundamental tenets of his innovative development assistance programs including the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which encourages honest, responsible government by rewarding those that govern justly, invest in their people, and foster economic freedom. Moreover as advanced by the USAID Anticorruption Strategy, our foreign assistance places a high priority on working with partners to strengthen critical transparency, rule of law, and accountability systems to fight corruption. The tools outlined in the strategy represent important enforcement areas that can help to achieve the strategic aims of USG development assistance. In expanding the circle of prosperity to all societies, the President is committed to empower people to seize their destiny, bring about reform, shape a cleaner and more transparent environment, and nurture hope for all children to fulfill their aspirations for a brighter future.
A copy of the President's Kleptocracy Strategy can be found at: http://www.state.gov/p/inl