Society has always treated corruption in two ways. But, since the end of the 18th century, everything has changed dramatically. The main slogan of liberal transformations in the West was that the state apparatus can exist only for the benefit of people subject to it. Therefore, subjects "feed" the government in exchange for compliance by officials with the laws. In addition, according to American law passed in 1787, taking a bribe is a serious crime for which even the president can be impeached. Many people then expressed a desire to make World Anti-Corruption Day from the date of adoption of this law and celebrate it on an annual basis. But the authorities did not support this popular impulse.
Society increasingly influenced the quality of politicians. With the tightening of state regulation and parties, the episodes of conspiracy of representatives of large business and the political elite were of great concern. The officials understood that it was necessary to organize anti-corruption measures. But all this remained at the level of discussion.
Also, the history of corruption was due to the revitalization of world economic relations. Transnational corporations, concluding contracts with foreign buyers, quite legally included the cost of “gifts” in the cost of negotiations.
Known cases
Long before the International Day against Corruption appeared, a scandal broke out in America with the participation of the well-known Lockheed company. To sell her planes, which were not of very high quality, she gave big bribes to officials and politicians of Japan, Germany and other countries. Around that time, people began to think about the global nature of this problem, which impedes the international development of relations.
No less revealing are examples of corruption in post-socialist countries during the dashing 90s, when the magnitude of this phenomenon could be compared with the situation in developing countries.
Very often paradoxical situations arose when the same persons held important posts in both commercial and state sectors of the economy. As a result, most officials violated the law not only by taking bribes, but also by protecting their own commercial interests.
World evil
Over time, the international community came to the conclusion that corruption is an evil that does not harm one person, a group of individuals or an individual state, but the whole world. This opinion was not developed from scratch. The whole reason was the massive bribery by corporations of senior officials abroad. Corruption impeded the development of many countries, negatively affecting world trade. At the same time, the states where this phenomenon reached the highest level did not limit themselves to the third world: in the 90s in the former socialist countries the liberalization process was accompanied by unimaginable official abuses. Against the backdrop of these events, some states have decided that the fight against crime and corruption will be a priority of their domestic policy. We go further.
"1995 - the year of corruption"
This is the title on the front page of readers of the New Year’s issue of the Financial Times. In the article, American exporting companies complained that they were losing large contracts due to foreign laws that prohibit bribes to officials from another country. On the contrary, in many OSCE states, bribes to foreign partners were not prohibited, and could even be deductible when paying taxes. For example, German corporations spent about $ 5.5 billion on this every year. To change the situation, some European officials even wanted to organize a fund to fight corruption. But in the end, they came to another, more effective solution. At the end of 1997, all OSCE countries signed the “Convention on the Prevention of Bribes to Foreign Persons in Conducting International Operations”.
UN connection
In 2003, a momentous event took place in the history of corruption. Thanks to the UN, the topic of combating this phenomenon was brought to the international level. In November, the General Assembly adopted the UN Convention against Corruption. This document was opened for signature on December 9, 2003 in the small town of Merida (Mexico). At the initiative of the UN, this date was proclaimed as International Day against Corruption. The states that agreed to sign this Convention recognized that money laundering, embezzlement of budget funds and bribes are criminal offenses. And one of the provisions of the document read: "Funds must be returned to the country where they came from as a result of corruption." Russia was one of the first to sign the Convention.
Ten years later
On December 9, 2013, another International Anti-Corruption Day was held, and exactly ten years have passed since the signing of the UN Convention. Currently, the document contains signatures of 140 states. 80 countries have ratified the Convention. Among them are Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Russia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. At the then G20 summit, all the countries included in it promised that they would ratify the UN Convention.
Conclusion
In 2013, before the International Anti-Corruption Day, the World Bank published financial data reflecting the size of this phenomenon on a global scale. For developing countries, the amounts ranged from 20 to 40 billion dollars a year.
According to the National Anti-Corruption Committee, the annual turnover of the Russian corruption market is about $ 300 billion. In 2003, when the Convention was signed, this figure was 100 times smaller. That is, the question of the impact of this document on the circulation of corrupt cash flows remains open. And it is unlikely that any additional measures will help here. Even if you establish an international anti-corruption fund, the result will be about the same.