"Cheat One of Us ..."/World Bank

Independent Films, Politics

The World Bank is refocusing its attention on corruption. Perhaps as one of its more functional measures, the World Bank is teaming up with other international/regional banks/partner organizations. As World Bank Robert Zoellick offered: "cheat one of us, you're cheating all of us," and such offenders will be "barred" from doing business with any of us.

Enforcement authorities from around the globe, meeting at the World Bank, today endorsed a declaration of principles to advance international efforts to counter global corruption.

The declaration outlines priorities for enforcement action, with an emphasis on the misuse or diversion of development resources, opportunities for joint or parallel investigative activities, developing information exchange systems, and practices to prevent and criminalize corruption.

SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Zoellick, World Bank Group President:
”There is a global call for a new accountability standard today, an expectation that standards should be higher. So we in turn, need to be able to meet this with a sense of shared responsibility to act against those who don’t meet those standards.”

At the meeting, the World Bank and its partners agreed that cooperation and a willingness to work together among investigative and prosecutorial authorities is critical to success in combating crime and corruption.

SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Zoellick, World Bank Group President:
“We took a very important step with our colleagues at the regional development banks. We developed a cross-debarment agreement. So, today the World Bank and the other MDBs have jointly recognized the cross-debarment of 28 companies and individuals around the world. So the message is pretty straightforward, if companies or individuals try to cheat one of us, they are going to get barred by all of us.”

The declaration, known as the “Declaration of Agreed Principles for Effective Global Enforcement to Counter Corruption”, emphasizes technical assistance and international cooperation in managing corruption investigations, as critical inputs to enhancing the fight against crime and corruption.

Directors:

• Muhamed Sacirbey, UNTV-World Bank

Producers:

• Susan Sacirbey