https://ift.tt/wEcZxH United States will significantly overhaul the way it targets public corruption, dedicating new resources to stemming illicit financial flows and coordinating the effort across the entire federal government, according to a new plan released Monday by the Biden administration.
The United States Strategy on Countering Corruption is the product of a six-month push in the executive branch to “take stock of existing U.S. government anti-corruption efforts and to identify and seek to rectify persistent gaps in the fight against corruption,” according to the proposal.
The 38-page document is unsparing in its assessment that developed economies, including the United States, have long created the conditions that allow corrupt public officials, frequently in the developing world, to hide illicit wealth abroad.
“Emerging research and major journalistic exposés have documented the extent to which legal and regulatory deficiencies in the developed world offer corrupt actors the means to offshore and launder illicit wealth,” the document says.
The plan commits the federal government to a policy built on five pillars. According to the document, those are “modernizing, coordinating, and resourcing U.S. government efforts to fight corruption; curbing illicit finance; holding corrupt actors accountable; preserving and strengthening the multilateral anti-corruption architecture; and improving diplomatic engagement and leveraging foreign assistance resources to advance policy goals.”
Anti-corruption activists pleased
The leaders of several global anti-corruption organizations said they were pleasantly surprised by the forcefulness of the language in the new U.S. plan.
“I think anybody who has been working on anti-corruption for any amount of time is very excited with what the administration has put together,” Tom Cardamone, president and CEO of Global Financial Integrity, told VOA. “It seems like a very well-thought-through approach to the problem.”