AMERICAS: Anticorruption Pact to Lift Banking Secrecy

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Mar 6 1996 (IPS) - The governments of 34 American nations will be questioning the issue of banking secrecy from Mar. 27 to 29, when they meet in Venezuela as part of the inter-american anti- corruption convention.

“Often, in corruption cases in our countries, banking documents are not available because no verdict is given, and sentencing cannot take place because there are no banking documents,” said Venezuelan Vice-Foreign Minister Milos Alcalay.

A mechanism to counter banking secrecy is needed for the international war on corruption to break this vicious circle.

Moreover, “there is a connection between unlawful economic transactions and associated crimes, because corruption and money laundering as a product of narcotraffic often find common ground on which to act,” Alcalay told the press.

One of the objectives of the agreement the hemisphere’s governments are considering is how to obtain proof in order to pass sentence in corruption cases, but they will also tackle how to recover the goods which change hands.

Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera suggested adopting the convention at the Americas Summit in Miami in December 1994.

This meeting was attended by all the American presidents, except for Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

The main objective of the summit was to negotiate the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) to be brought in by 2005, proposing bloc ideals like the defence of democracy, the fight against narcotraffic, the battle against poverty and energy security.

Venezuela insisted on the issue of persecuting and punishing corruption, and the Miami Summit then prepared a draft of an inter- american agreement.

The first draft was presented in early 1995 to the Organisation of American States (OAS) and a technical meeting of legal advisers will revise it in the OAS headquarters on Mar. 10 and 11.

If the legal advisers reach agreement the government representatives at the Caracas conference may either accept the convention, or pass it on to a later meeting.

Magda Betancourt, a Venezuelan legal representative revising the document, told IPS they were up against problems, as the crime of making illicit income which figures in Latin American law does not exist in the non-Latin American nation’s legal codes.

“In the English speaking countries, making an illicit income is a consequence of criminal acts and not an offence in its own right, a reversal of our law,” she said.

The Venezuelan draft also proposes action on three other offences which it defines as “all action or omission by a public official, either directly or through a mediary, in return for gifts, presents, promises, advantages unduly demanded, accepted or received.”

Collaboration with acts which affect property or the acquiring or use of goods produced by acts known to be crimes against State assets, will also be considered offences.

Signatory nations will undertake to offer legal assistance and lift banking secrecy to provide evidence, while establishing mechanisms to provide information on monetary transactions carried out under their jurisdiction.

They will also promise not to grant asylum to anyone who is being tried or condemned on corruption charges, and to facilitate the extradition of such people.

Mechanisms will be created to identify the goods earned through corrupt dealings and return them to the State concerned.

The Venezuelan Vice-Foreign Minister said the convention would be a great help in the fight for justice, though there are no plans for an ombudsman or anticorruption commissioner.

“The fight against corruption is a very pertinent issue, and very timely, as in America and Europe parties, governments and ideological systems are falling mainly as a result of corruption.”

The search for foreign investments in the region, “must not be undertaken without taking into account the cost, because we don’t want the association with illegal dealings,” he added.

“Our obligation is to combat corruption because the Miami Action Plan means a commitment to fight so that democracy can be effective,” said Alcalay.

AMERICAS: Anticorruption Pact to Lift Banking Secrecy

By Humberto Márquez Reprint | | Print |

Humberto Marquez

CARACAS, Mar 6 1996 (IPS) - The governments of 34 American nations will be questioning the issue of banking secrecy from Mar. 27 to 29, when they meet in Venezuela as part of the inter-american anti- corruption convention.
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