Fact Sheet
The White House Office of the Press Secretary
Sea Island, Georgia
June 10, 2004

Fighting Corruption/Improving Transparency

Last year in Evian we committed ourselves to act together, and with developing country partners and the international

community, to fight corruption and improve transparency. We will do still more to help cut away the burden of corruption on

economic growth. What follows is a report on follow-up to the commitments we made in Evian.

Country-led Transparency Compacts Launched

G-8 governments are working with a number of developing countries with a view toward building voluntary partnerships to

assist their efforts to increase transparency and thereby to use public resources wisely. These efforts will focus on

transparency in public budgets, including revenues and expenditures, government procurement, the letting of public

concessions and the granting of licenses. Special emphasis will be given to cooperation with countries with large extractive

industries sectors. These partnerships will be put in place through voluntary compacts that lay out commitments on both sides

in support of country-owned strategies and in full complementarity with ongoing initiatives and programs.

* The Governments of Georgia, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Peru have come forward with the first such compacts to achieve

these important goals. Other interested countries are actively pursuing compacts. We task our relevant ministries to develop

in partnership with these countries implementation plans.

* Partner governments have specified, in concrete terms, what they intend to do to bring greater transparency and

accountability to the management of public resources.

* Participating G-8 countries will support them by providing bilateral technical assistance and political support. With each

compact partner, participants will develop action plans that set forth our joint efforts to achieve measurable improvements in

these areas.

* Participating G-8 governments will work with partner countries to enlist the support and engagement of private

companies, organizations and civil society, as well as international institutions.

* For partner countries rich in oil, natural gas, and mineral resources, the compacts will pay particular attention to the

transparency of revenue flows and payments in these sectors, while protecting the necessary confidentiality of business

operations. Our shared goal is to help combat the harmful effects on development when national resources and revenues are

misused. Complementary efforts to promote transparency are also taken forward by countries participating in the

Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative.

UN Convention Against Corruption Agreed
G-8 governments met their Evian goal of seeing conclusion of the UN Convention Against Corruption, which establishes high

international standards of public integrity, transparency and accountability, and facilitates the recovery of illicitly acquired

assets that have been transferred abroad. To ensure that this important new international agreement is implemented

effectively, we will:

* Remain committed to become parties to the Convention and call for rapid signature and completion of all necessary steps

to ratify and implement the Convention, and support the convening in Vienna of a multilateral "Friends of the Convention"

process for promoting active and effective implementation.

* We are committed to translating the words of this Convention into effective actions and assisting third countries,

particularly developing countries, in accomplishing the objectives of the Convention.

* We welcome the agreement of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers on recovering proceeds of corruption.

* We support our Ministers' determination to detect, recover and return these illicitly acquired assets, including by:
o establishing G-8 accelerated response teams;

o enhancing G-8 asset recovery case coordination; and

o holding G-8 asset recovery workshops.
* To meet these goals, we will ensure that:
o each of our countries has rules in place by Summer 2005, where possible, to require due diligence for "politically

exposed persons" accounts;

o each of our countries has rules in place, preferably by 12/31/04, to require wire transfer originator information;

o we create G-8 best practices for modalities of disposition and return; and

o we explore effective measures to recover assets in corruption cases.

Denying Safe Haven to Officials Guilty of Corruption
We reaffirm our commitment at Evian to seek in accordance with national laws to deny safe haven to public officials guilty

of corruption, by denying them entry, when appropriate. We will direct our experts to examine and improve efforts to

achieve this objective and review progress at our next Summit.
Public Financial Management and Accountability Strengthened
We welcome the real progress to strengthen public financial management and accountability programs in the International

Financial Institutions (IFIs). The IMF agreed to publish its program documents and surveillance reports effective July

2004.
The Inter-American Development Bank also agreed on an improved disclosure policy. We will encourage countries to meet the

high disclosure and transparency standards set by the IFIs and to:

* Achieve agreement on full disclosure of the World Bank International Development Association's (IDA) Country Policy

and Institutional Assessment results, with disclosure to start with the 2005 ratings;

* Seek full disclosure of performance evaluations in the regional development banks;

* Maintain solid G-8 support for mandatory publication of country assistance strategies at the World Bank and the Asian

Development Bank this year, and at other regional banks in the future.

* Encourage IMF members to complete and publish IMF reports/diagnostics that examine each country's budget

procedures to determine the level of transparency and accountability;

* Support the efforts of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) program at the World Bank to help

developing countries achieve accountability in public finance and expenditure and to extend harmonized approaches to the

assessment and reform of their public financial and accountability systems; procurement should follow a strong, parallel

track to ensure that it is not subsumed or marginalized by the streamlining; and

* Invite developing countries to prepare anti-corruption action plans to implement their commitments in regional and

international conventions.

OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Reviews Accelerated and Corporate Compliance Programs Encouraged
We made good progress to fulfill the G-8's Evian pledge to strengthen OECD monitoring of the Anti-Bribery Convention. The

OECD Council approved a reform package on in February, 2004, including a mechanism to fund the Working Group on

Bribery (WGB). It achieves stable funding through 2007 to complete a full round of important peer reviews that examine

member country's enforcement track record.

* We will adhere rigorously to our updated 2004-2007 enforcement review schedule, honour our pledges to serve as lead

examiners or examinees, and send our prosecutors and other law enforcement officials to participate in peer reviews.

* We will encourage efforts of our private sectors to develop and implement corporate compliance programs to promote

adherence to laws against foreign bribery, and welcome the positive steps already taken by certain industries to develop

specific principles relevant to their specific activities to promote such compliance.

Framework Strengthened for Fighting Financial Crimes, Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism
All G-8 countries committed to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) revised 40 recommendations adopted in

June 2003.
We are promoting implementation of the UN Transnational Organized Crime (TOC) Convention. We will develop a diplomatic

strategy to urge speedy consideration of ratification of the TOC Convention and coordinate with others, including donors to

the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, to provide technical assistance to promote implementation of the Convention.
We strongly support the broad international effort undertaken by the IMF/World Bank, the FATF and other international

organizations to assess jurisdictions' compliance with the anti-money laundering and combating of the financing of terrorist

(AML/CFT) standard. We urge all jurisdictions to move with dispatch to address shortcomings in their regimes. As part of the

international effort, we look forward to delivery of technical assistance to help jurisdictions address identified shortfalls

in their AML/CFT regimes.
Transparency Focus in Trade Agreements Reaffirmed
We reaffirm our pledge at Evian to "work towards including in our regional and bilateral trade agreements provisions

requiring transparency in government procurement, the awarding of concessions, as well as provisions on trade facilitation."
Review of Off-Shore Financial Centers Continues
We reaffirm our commitment to further enhance transparency and supervisory standards in financial markets in particular

non-compliant off-shore centers. We ask our Finance Ministers to carry this work forward. In this regard, we welcome the

IMF's regular monitoring and assessment of offshore financial centers' compliance with international standards. We also

urge all financial centers, both off-shore and on-shore, to adopt high standards of transparency and exchange of

information in all tax matters.
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