Bribery & Corruption --&-- Cancelling Third World Debt

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Bribery has become a $1 trillion industry. Corruption has been shown to hold back developing countries, keeping the poorest people in poverty, and is a major 'tax' on enterprise growth. Can it ever be controlled? Daniel Kaufmann, World Bank Institute Governance director, participated in a live online discussion on corruption and governance on April 13, 2004 - read the discussion transcript below. Note: This discussion generated many more questions than could be answered during the hour discussion. While we won't be able to answer all the questions that were asked, Daniel Kaufmann will be answering more of them offline during the next several days, and we will post his answers on the World Bank Institute Governance website. The following resources may also be of interest:

* $1 Trillion - The Cost of Corruption. You may read the article and post a comment on our message boards. [Digression: April 8, 2004—More than $1 trillion dollars (US$1,000 billion) is paid in bribes each year, according to ongoing research at the World Bank Institute (WBI).

Daniel Kaufmann, the Institute's director for Governance, says this US$1 trillion figure is an estimate of actual bribes paid worldwide in both rich and developing countries. [. . . . ] ]

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Third World debt write-off tied to reforms Patrick goodenough, Jun. 13, 05

The decision was made at a meeting of G8 finance ministers in London at the weekend, in preparation for a G8 heads of state summit in Scotland next month.
It wipes out more than $40 billion in debts owed to multinational institutions by 14 African countries and four in the Western Hemisphere -- Bolivia, Nicaragua, Honduras and Haiti.

Nine others, all in Africa, could join the list in the next year or so, if they meet specific obligations in line with an earlier World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.

[. . . . ] A statement released by the British Treasury on behalf of the G8 ministers said the World Bank and IMF would be asked to report on improvements on transparency and the drive against corruption, "to ensure that all resources are used for poverty reduction."

As for transparency, might I suggest starting at home? Think of the transparency in how payments to Canada's natives are spent and by whom. Many natives would like to know more, too. Then, there are problems with Canadians' access to information and/or timely information on funding and documents.