Anti-Corruption and Transparency Experts Task Force - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

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Corruption is a major obstacle to social and economic development and increases the cost of doing business.

APEC's Anti-Corruption and Transparency Expert Task Force (ACT) is made up of law enforcement officials from APEC member economies. It's main activities include:

Implementation of the United Nations' Convention Against Corruption; the Santiago Commitment To Fight Corruption and Ensure Transparency endorsed by APEC Leaders in 2004; and The APEC Anticorruption and Transparency Course of Action endorsed by Ministers in 2004
Information sharing
Promotion of mutual legal assistance
Capacity building in areas of corruption prevention and prosecution
Cooperation on denial of safe haven for corrupt individuals and embezzled assets

APEC Economic Leaders put fighting corruption on their agenda in 2003 in Bangkok. The decision was taken to set up a task force under Senior Officials to specifically steer APEC anti-corruption activities and the ACT was established in 2005.

In 2007 ACT made concrete progress on finalizing its deliverables that were adopted and approved by APEC Leaders and Ministers in Sydney in late September. They endorsed:

A Code of Conduct for Business

Conduct Principles for Public Officials

Complementary Anti-Corruption Principles for the Public and Private Sectors

2007 Statement on Actions for Fighting Corruption through Improved International Legal Cooperation

Achievements

Peru hosted the APEC Workshop on Special International Cooperation to Facilitate Asset Recovery in Lima on the 2-3 October 2008. During the presentations , participant economies emphasized the importance of mutual legal assistance (MLA) mechanisms for recovering the proceeds from corruption. Experiences shared in the event covered the use of the various tools such as multilateral and bilateral treaties, voluntary channels, and other means to support public prosecutors' work. As expressed by experts during the workshop, APEC members economies are already enforcing different lawful responses which include supporting the international legal frameworks such as: MLA statutes, bilateral treaties the ASEAN Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal matters and the OECD Convention.

APEC economies acknowledged the existence of varying needs facing asset recovery matters . Only after identifying those appropriate tools can asset recovery take place through the cooperation channels. The workshop brought up the possibility for APEC economies to look at model treaties in following ACT meetings.

The 7th plenary meeting was held in Lima Peru on 13-14 August 2008 for the purpose to further advance the 2008 work plan. Important deliberations on the main policy deliverables took place, reaffirming the importance of the fight against corruption. The ACT also examined the ways and means to develop practical measures on ethical codes of conduct aimed improving corporate governance and public transparency. The plenary also approved members' proposals on:

Capacity-Building Workshop on Formulating Strategies for Strengthening Inter-Agency Mechanisms on Combating Corruption Related to Money Laundering (Thailand); and
the Capacity building workshop on effectively addressing corruption in the developing economies (Korea).

Members recently endorsed the Singapore proposal on Governance in Private and Public Sector.

Organized and hosted by the Vietnam General Inspectorate, the APEC Anti-corruption and Administrative Reform Seminar took place in Viet Nam on 25-26 June 2008. Participants discussed the links to corruption, the role of anti-corruption agencies, private sector best practices and public finance reform.

Endorsed by APEC Ministers and Leaders with the support of the APEC Business Advisory Council in 2007, the APEC codes of conduct for Public and Private sector are now moving towards implementation. The project aims to implement the Code by providing capacity building seminars to government and law enforcement officials, civil society representatives, chambers of commerce and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Current Activities

At the APEC Anti-corruption and Transparency Experts Task Force in August 2008, The ACT also noted and approved Thailand's preliminary finding on the comparative study of Anti-Corruption Measures and Procedures in APEC which will significantly contribute to broadening the data and statistics available for the APEC region. The final report is expected to be delivered at the next ACT plenary in 2009.

Other future deliverables include:

The design of a Pathfinder Initiative which would create a practical and effective implementation process for the Code of Conduct for Business. The proposal aims to carry out a series of seminars that will seek to educate these bodies about their obligations under the domestic law and the Code as well as providing assistance and incentives through recognition for SMEs to implement the Code.
As part of ongoing initiatives, Indonesia is carrying out research on Anti-Corruption cooperation in APEC, focusing on a stock-take of bilateral and regional arrangements on anti-corruption matters between and among APEC member economies. There are currently 8 economies involved in the stock-taking exercise: Peru, Chile, Mexico, Chinese Taipei, Brunei, Canada, New Zealand and Russia.
To intensify cooperation between APEC member economies, an ACT Capacity Building Template has been developed. A consolidated capacity building framework template on needs for developing priority areas of cooperation is expected to be delivered this year. The template will help ACT members to identify areas where capacity building activities are most desired and will show how ACT members can complement each other in corruption prevention and prosecution.