The newly launched All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption should cooperate with other such groups worldwide to help beat graft overseas, a policy adviser at advocacy group Tearfund said
LONDON (TrustLaw) –Tearfund wants the UK’s newly launched All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption, which it helped launch, to cooperate with other such groups worldwide to help beat graft overseas, a policy adviser at the advocacy group said.
The APPG was launched last month – by a group of British lawmakers and a coalition of anti-corruption advocacy groups including the Hansard Society, Bond Anti-Corruption Group as well as Tearfund – to bring corruption issues onto the parliamentary agenda.
TrustLaw spoke to Melissa Lawson, Tearfund public policy advisor on governance and corruption, about Tearfund’s role in helping to create the APPG, how she envisions the group will operate and what the group hopes to achieve.
Will you be focusing on UK citizens bribing people overseas, or on domestic UK corruption?
There was a lot of discussion as to whether the group should be called International Anti-Corruption but the group is just called Anti-Corruption so it’ll be looking at UK and overseas but the emphasis is in the overseas context and that’s where we think the impacts of corruption are most devastating. It’ll have that emphasis in terms of the UK’s role in corruption overseas.
How did Tearfund become involved in the all-party parliamentary group (APPG)?
We were basically involved in initiating the group and we started calling for a need for a group because we identified that there wasn’t really a mechanism in parliament for issues of corruption to be on the agenda and there wasn’t a mechanism for scrutiny. We met with several MPs (members of parliament) and had lots of meetings with them so we were really the ones who generated support for it from the beginning. We also had connections with GOPAC (the Global Organization of Parliamentarians against Corruption) and we noted that there wasn’t a chapter here in the UK and that was a shame as there’s quite a lot of opportunity there. And so I suppose the two things came together and we just thought that there needs to be enhanced scrutiny and there’s not a UK chapter of this organisation so let’s see how we can take this further.
What does GOPAC do that the UK is missing out on?
GOPAC has 900 MPs worldwide from 90 different countries. It basically acts as a network for parliamentarians who are looking to tackle corruption and they have what they call global task forces, which basically are groups which work on specific corruption issues. They get members from different countries to come together to look at corruption issues. For example, they’ve got one on anti-money-laundering and they’ll get parliamentarians from different countries to come together and look at legislation that’s quite successful in tackling those issues and it gives them a lot of information. GOPAC has a huge amount of resources and experience as parliamentarians in how to use their role to tackle corruption. That’s where we think there’s a role and an opportunity.
What is Tearfund’s role in the future of the group?
For the next few months, we’re helping to provide some secretariat support, just to get the group off the ground, but mainly we’re trying to provide policy support. We’re doing this amongst other NGOs (non-governmental organisations). We’re working with the Hansard Society and also the Bond Anti-Corruption group, which currently Tearfund chair, (but) that’s a rolling thing so we’ll be ending our position in a few weeks. But as part of a group of NGOs, we’re providing policy support and giving guidance on some issues that they may want to investigate as a group, on suggestions for outside speakers, those types of things.
Do you see potential linkups with other APPGs?
Very much so, it’s really important to note that other APPGs are doing things on corruption like the APPG on International Corporate Responsibility, the Great Lakes APPG – they’ve all been doing aspects of corruption and have been looking into them so we want to work with them on particular meetings or work packages. But I suppose the reason we think it’s important that we have a separate one is that corruption is not just a Great Lakes problem, it’s not an Africa problem, we want to highlight that actually it’s a global problem and the UK is also implicitly involved or sometimes fuelling it so how can we in the UK play a part in tackling it?
Does the group have a working definition of corruption?
Not at present, and that’s mainly because it’s only just had its Annual General Meeting. We’ve obviously got a Tearfund definition and the Bond group has definitions but that’s something that the group initially looks at and says ‘how do we, as a group of parliamentarians, define this and what does it look like for us?’ At present, the agenda has just been suggested and they discussed it at the inaugural meeting and now it’s up to the officers and the other members of the group to decide to direct the group with support from ourselves.
What is on the suggested agenda?
One thing that has been proposed and was discussed at the inaugural meeting is the group going through the GOPAC toolkit. The GOPAC toolkit is designed for parliamentarians to look at how their country is doing in tackling corruption. It’s quite a good checklist for parliamentarians to get themselves up to speed on a variety of issues but also enables them to look at the legislative framework, how enforcement is being outworked. It’s very much for analysis. I think the plan is to have a series of roundtable discussions that will feed into this toolkit and to go through that in the next year so that a document will be produced looking at these different aspects. That was the proposed work package for the next few months and that was discussed at the inaugural meeting and I think they’re planning on going ahead with it, so it’ll be composed of a series of roundtable discussions.
Will outside speakers be invited in?
Exactly, so the group will invite different speakers on particular issues, … whether it’s on money laundering, whether it’s on the extractive industries, so we’ll get experts and a variety of opinions to come and have a roundtable discussion which will then be written up.
Has a date been set for the next meeting?
Not at present. The officers are planning to meet in the next couple of weeks before the end of the parliamentary term to discuss exactly the first date. It is planned for January but I think there’s some discussion as to the exact date and time.
Do you know how often they’ll meet?
At present, no. It wasn’t mentioned at the inaugural meeting how often. It’s completely up to the group ultimately and the chair and officers how often they want to organise the meeting but I think it’ll probably depend on work. They’ve got to meet in order to fulfill the APPG rules and procedures at least once a year for their AGM but that’s all that they have to. The plan initially was every other month but it really is down to the officers, it’s their group and up to them as to how they’d like to direct it.
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