‘Corruption matters’, CDB chief urges

Corruption could reverse the development gains in the Caribbean if it is not tackled head on the Caribbean’s top development banker warned on Monday.

And the COVID-19 pandemic has put into sharp focus the thorny and constantly evolving nature of corruption, said Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) president Dr Warren Smith as he inaugurated a joint CDB-World Bank conference on corruption and cybercrime.

He said: “António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, reminded us that corruption thrives in times of crisis. We must, therefore, maintain our vigilance as COVID-19 responses open new avenues for exploiting weak oversight systems.”

He described corruption as “an age-old problem” with “a remarkable capacity for reinvention” and stressed that it was critical for financial institutions such as CDB to employ diverse strategies to stay ahead of those who seek to “circumvent systems and processes”.

The virtual two-day conference is one such strategy by the CDB, Dr Smith said.

He noted that the conference includes topics “not typically addressed under the rubric of corruption” such as the roles of women, youth and media and emphasised this was because the bank believes in a multi-pronged approach to combating corruption, involving all actors within society.

Dr Smith said: “Corruption matters, even when it is not in our peripheral vision. It matters to governments and corporate leaders because of the speed with which it can lead to significant financial and reputational damage and retard economic development.

“It matters to our youth, the next generation of employers, workers and service providers who will face constant temptation when they enter the workplace, and sometimes, even earlier.

“And it matters to our citizens who pay the price for corruption through reductions in the quantity and quality of social services, decaying infrastructure, and inefficient state institutions.”

The inaugural Caribbean Conference on Corruption, Compliance and Cybercrime, features leading officials for integrity at key international development institutions: CDB’s Dr Toussant Boyce, Head of its Office of Integrity, Compliance and Accountability; Vice-President of Integrity, World Bank Group, Mouhamadou Diagne and Laura Profeta, Chief, Office of Institutional Integrity at the Inter-American Development Bank.

On Tuesday, the Attorneys General of The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Grenada, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, are to take part in a virtual roundtable on anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, sanctions compliance risks, blacklisting and dealing with illicit financial flows. (SD/CDB)