Press Releases
Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Richard E. Hoagland
at the International Conference
Creating Conditions for Sustainable Economic and Social Development in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Fighting Corruption and Promoting Good Governance
Palace Of Independence
Astana, September 16, 2009
I am honored that I have been asked to make comments at this important conference. Corruption is an important issue, and I would like to express my appreciation to Kazakhstan for sponsoring and hosting this conference.
Corruption is not solely the problem of any individual country and, thus, opportunities like this for countries to come together and to discuss lessons learned and best practices is key to combating corruption.
In light of this, the United States strongly supports both bilateral and regional anticorruption programs. We also continue to support capacity building, good governance, and rule of law programs to fight corruption throughout the world.
We are pleased to support the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regional anticorruption initiative for Eastern Europe and Eurasia, welcome the involvement of other organizations such as Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and are glad to see other supporting and participating countries from outside the region in the room. We are glad to see the interest of the countries in the region and their partners in continuing to work collaboratively on this issue to set a common, forward-looking agenda. We welcome the “Astana Statement” that will come out of this conference, and support the principles it reflects.
Why are anti-corruption initiatives important? Corruption does not just affect those paying bribes – it affects the whole nation. As President Obama has said, “It is painfully obvious that corruption stifles development - it siphons off scarce resources that could improve infrastructure, bolster education systems, and strengthen public health. It prevents entrepreneurs from getting their job-creating ideas off the ground…. Corruption also erodes the state from the inside out, sickening the justice system until there is no justice to be found, poisoning the police forces until their presence becomes a source of insecurity rather than comfort.”
Continuing President Obama’s words, “Some of the worst actors on the international stage can also take advantage of the collective exhaustion and outrage that people feel with official corruption, as we’ve seen with Islamic extremists who promise purification, but deliver totalitarianism. Endemic corruption opens the door to this kind of movement, and in its wake comes a new set of distortions and betrayals of public trust.”
The struggle against corruption requires vigilance. Corruption cannot be merely cleaned up and forgotten about. It takes an ongoing effort to fight corruption. We all must keep learning from each other and avoid complacency. We must identify the weaknesses in our laws and institutions, and our vulnerable sectors, and improve our safeguards.
In the United States, we continue to learn and strive to improve our legal framework. We strive to prosecute corrupt officials within the rule of law and without political motivation. In fact, we’ve recently had members of Congress convicted of corruption crimes, and they have served time in prison.
In the United States, we also involve all sectors of society in the fight against corruption. We encourage and enable the private sector to take anti-corruption measures and to give input on how the government is functioning; we provide civil society advocates and watchdogs the space and independence to operate; and we protect the media when they make unpleasant charges based on truth.
Transparent governmental institutions are not enough; there must be a strong civil society and a free media watching those institutions. I am pleased that Transparency International and other civil-society groups are here today, and I hope that they continue seriously to pursue corruption, wherever it may be found.
Though they are important to anti-corruption efforts, governments cannot rely solely on civil society and the media to root out corruption. Governmental anti-corruption bodies must be funded and well trained, and must be provided a sufficient level of independence to allow them to do their jobs. However, with independence comes responsibility. There must be accountability, and these bodies must do their jobs within the rule of law and without political motivation.
A comprehensive approach is reflected in the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), and reinforced by other treaties such as the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the Council of Europe Conventions. These are good road maps for our continued efforts to improve our preventive and law enforcement systems. We are working with other countries to negotiate a peer-review mechanism for reviewing implementation of the UNCAC, like those of the OECD, Council of Europe, or Istanbul Action Plan. We hope delegates will take back to their capitals our goal that we work together to adopt an effective UNCAC review process, with the elements that will make it transparent, participatory, and credible.
The Government of Kazakhstan has committed itself to “The Path to Europe,” which encompasses all of these ideals and international conventions. I congratulate the Republic of Kazakhstan for this bold vision, which, if fully implemented over time, which I believe is President Nazarbayev’s sincere goal, will lead to an increasingly bright future for the people of Kazakhstan, and an increasingly important role for the nation of Kazakhstan on the international world stage.
I want to close with one more quote from President Obama. “In the end, if the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost. This is why the struggle against corruption is one of the great struggles of our time.”
Thank you.
