LONDON (TrustLaw) – The British government must put more pressure on the banks, law firms and accountancy firms that make it possible to move and hide corrupt funds, a new report published on Friday by the Bond Anti-Corruption Group said.
The group’s “Parallel Report and Questionnaire on the UK’s Compliance with the U.N. Convention against Corruption” highlights areas in which it said the UK is failing to comply with the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the only truly global anti-corruption convention.
Released to coincide with International Anti-Corruption Day, the report recommended that the government do more to enforce its anti-bribery laws and to tackle the flows of illicit funds that pass through the UK financial system.
“The failure to act here in the UK when it comes to enforcing bribery laws and tackling dirty money has devastating effects on developing countries, undermining good governance and exacerbating poverty,” Melissa Lawson, chair of the Bond Anti-Corruption Group and Tearfund policy adviser, said in a statement.
“This report shows why the UK must not remain ambivalent when it comes to addressing the real issues in the fight against corruption,” Lawson added.
While the report welcomed the introduction of Britain's Bribery Act, which covers overseas operations of firms doing business in the UK and became law on July 1, it criticised the Ministry of Justice’s accompanying guidance on the act, describing it as “unclear” and as “creating potential loopholes”.
The report also said that Britain’s anti-corruption agency, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), lacked resources and that the government had failed to put pressure on secrecy jurisdictions in Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to publish company registries.
“The laws are there to tackle corruption but there is complacency in the face of growing corruption threats,” Eric Gutierrez, senior governance adviser at Christian Aid and one of the report’s authors said.
“The Government’s International Anti-Corruption Champion must instigate an anti-corruption strategy and ensure that there are sufficient resources to tackle this issue,” he added.
Additionally, the report’s authors said that it had been difficult to understand the nature and extent of corruption in the UK because the government does not track it, making it very difficult to compile data on the issue.
(Editing by Rebekah Curtis)
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