Joining The Convention Would Have Helped Get Slush Money Back
Indrani Bagchi | TNN
New Delhi: India stands out as one of the few countries in the world that have not acceded to the UN convention against corruption. This convention, which came into force in 2005, has 140 countries on its list. India, which regularly battles corruption of mammoth proportions, is not.
India signed the pact in 2005 but the UPA government, particularly the department of personnel and training (DoPT), has steadfastly refused to ratify it. Over the years, the ministry of external affairs (MEA), the nodal ministry for international treaties, has been pushing the government to ratify it. The official reason is India has not yet brought its laws in line with the convention. But it’s been six years and there has been little interest by the government in making India less prone to corruption. India’s stand is particularly strange since many Indian diplomats helped pilot the convention through the UN.
For instance, acceding to the convention could have made it easier for India to repatriate the billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth stashed overseas. FM Pranab Mukherjee has found himself in complex negotiations with Leichtenstein, Switzerland and Germany to bring back stolen assets. Under the convention, asset recovery is a fundamental principle, Article 51 provides for return of assets to countries of origin. The convention requires signatories to put in place certain preventive measures like enhanced transparency in funding election campaigns and political parties — which certainly in India is at the root of a lot of government corruption.
The convention criminalises not only basic corruption such as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds but also trading in influence and the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption. According to UN literature, “offences committed in support of corruption, including moneylaundering and obstructing justice, are also dealt with. Convention offences also deal with the problematic areas of private sector corruption.”
The convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly on October 31, 2003 in New York.
No comments:
Post a Comment