The White House
President George W. Bush
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 10, 2004

Fighting Corruption/Improving Transparency

Last year in Evian we committed ourselves to act together, and with developing country partners and the international community, to fight corruption and improve transparency. We will do still more to help cut away the burden of corruption on economic growth. What follows is a report on follow-up to the commitments we made in Evian.

Country-led Transparency Compacts Launched

G-8 governments are working with a number of developing countries with a view toward building voluntary partnerships to assist their efforts to increase transparency and thereby to use public resources wisely. These efforts will focus on transparency in public budgets, including revenues and expenditures, government procurement, the letting of public concessions and the granting of licenses. Special emphasis will be given to cooperation with countries with large extractive industries sectors. These partnerships will be put in place through voluntary compacts that lay out commitments on both sides in support of country-owned strategies and in full complementarity with ongoing initiatives and programs.

UN Convention Against Corruption Agreed

G-8 governments met their Evian goal of seeing conclusion of the UN Convention Against Corruption, which establishes high international standards of public integrity, transparency and accountability, and facilitates the recovery of illicitly acquired assets that have been transferred abroad. To ensure that this important new international agreement is implemented effectively, we will:

Denying Safe Haven to Officials Guilty of Corruption

We reaffirm our commitment at Evian to seek in accordance with national laws to deny safe haven to public officials guilty of corruption, by denying them entry, when appropriate. We will direct our experts to examine and improve efforts to achieve this objective and review progress at our next Summit.

Public Financial Management and Accountability Strengthened

We welcome the real progress to strengthen public financial management and accountability programs in the International Financial Institutions (IFIs). The IMF agreed to publish its program documents and surveillance reports effective July 2004.

The Inter-American Development Bank also agreed on an improved disclosure policy. We will encourage countries to meet the high disclosure and transparency standards set by the IFIs and to:

OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Reviews Accelerated and Corporate Compliance Programs Encouraged

We made good progress to fulfill the G-8's Evian pledge to strengthen OECD monitoring of the Anti-Bribery Convention. The OECD Council approved a reform package on in February, 2004, including a mechanism to fund the Working Group on Bribery (WGB). It achieves stable funding through 2007 to complete a full round of important peer reviews that examine member country's enforcement track record.

Framework Strengthened for Fighting Financial Crimes, Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism

All G-8 countries committed to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) revised 40 recommendations adopted in June 2003.

We are promoting implementation of the UN Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) Convention. We will develop a diplomatic strategy to urge speedy consideration of ratification of the TOC Convention and coordinate with others, including donors to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, to provide technical assistance to promote implementation of the Convention.

We strongly support the broad international effort undertaken by the IMF/World Bank, the FATF and other international organizations to assess jurisdictions' compliance with the anti-money laundering and combating of the financing of terrorist (AML/CFT) standard. We urge all jurisdictions to move with dispatch to address shortcomings in their regimes. As part of the international effort, we look forward to delivery of technical assistance to help jurisdictions address identified shortfalls in their AML/CFT regimes.

Transparency Focus in Trade Agreements Reaffirmed

We reaffirm our pledge at Evian to "work towards including in our regional and bilateral trade agreements provisions requiring transparency in government procurement, the awarding of concessions, as well as provisions on trade facilitation."

Review of Off-Shore Financial Centers Continues

We reaffirm our commitment to further enhance transparency and supervisory standards in financial markets in particular non-compliant off-shore centers. We ask our Finance Ministers to carry this work forward. In this regard, we welcome the IMF's regular monitoring and assessment of offshore financial centers' compliance with international standards. We also urge all financial centers, both off-shore and on-shore, to adopt high standards of transparency and exchange of information in all tax matters.

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