The Island Editorial

Battling corruption

24 November 2016

 

Leaders of all countries declare at every international forum that they are committed to eradicating corruption. Each and every one of them wears anti-corruption sentiments on his or her sleeve. But, corruption thrives!

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not seem to baulk at anything in his ‘war on corruption’. He has even adopted an unorthodox method to flush out black money as part of it. The demonetisation of bank notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 denominations has reportedly plunged the Indian economy into chaos. The ordinary people including housewives and small-time traders who believe in the cash economy are said to be the worst hit. Some experts have even described the note ban as ‘poor economics’ in that it hurts the economy and the accumulation of black money could happen even in the new currency with the passage of time.

However, PM Modi is determined to steer the demonetisation programme to a finish.

The Modi government, in its campaign against black money, is reported to have made some headway on another front. Its efforts to pressure Switzerland to agree to automatic sharing of information with India on Indians’ Swiss bank accounts have reached fruition. The agreement, however, will take effect in 2018 and details of accounts opened in the past will not be shared. There’s the rub. No Indian crook in his proper senses will deposit his black money with Swiss banks hereafter; it will be stashed away elsewhere. There are many other places where ill-gotten wealth is welcome.

The need for a global effort to crack down on black money cannot be overemphasised. This is not a task that two or three countries can accomplish on their own however powerful they may be. It requires a global effort. But, as in the case of terrorism, the world powers are divided on the question of black money, which has unfortunately become the lifeblood of their banking systems. They are not averse to money belonging to corrupt politicians and criminals the world over flowing into their banking system so long as it helps sustain their economies. Their hypocrisy became manifestly evident at the much-advertised global anti-corruption summit in London in May this year.

The then British Prime Minister David Cameron, reeling from a damning Panama Papers revelation, undertook to do away with corporate secrecy as regards the ownership of companies in Britain, but he stopped short of ensuring that the British overseas territories and dependencies such as the Virgin Island would follow suit.

US Secretary of State John Kerry waxed eloquent at the anti-graft summit, on the need to battle corruption and terrorism, which he rightly described as dual threats to the world economy and security. Strangely, the US was one of the countries which did not agree to share the so-called ‘registers of beneficial ownership’ to reveal who really owns companies in their territories.

So much for the world leaders’ commitment to fighting corruption!

President Maithripala Sirisena, speaking at the London Summit, described corruption as one of the factors that promoted political violence and other forms of human rights abuses. He, true to form, inveighed against the Rajapaksa administration, which, he said, had been rejected by the people who ‘reacted strongly against corruption’. It may be recalled that his main election pledge was to rid the country of corruption.

Having talked the talk, now the time has come for President Sirisena to walk the walk. A committee appointed by his party, the SLFP, which is part of the government, to study the recently released COPE report on mega bond scams, has handed over its report to him. Unless he ensures that the bond thieves will be brought to justice and the losses the state coffers and the Employees’ Provident Fund have suffered due to their rackets recovered forthwith, he will not only make a mockery of his commitment to battling corruption but also run the risk of facing the same fate as his predecessor who had a grand pratfall as he tolerated crooks.