Gurugram: The first meeting of the G20 Anti-corruption Working Group (ACWG) ended with a call for strengthening law enforcement cooperation for action against corruption and related economic crimes. The three-day meeting took place in Gurugram, Haryana from March 1-3. The Co-chair for the working group is Italy.
Over 90 delegates from 20 member countries, 10 invitee countries and 9 international organizations deliberated on several key focal areas pertaining to asset recovery, fugitive economic offenders, formal and informal channels of cooperation for information sharing, institutional frameworks for combating corruption and mutual legal assistance, among others.
The delegates discussed areas of future action like bringing in processes where Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) can be traced and extradited faster, and their properties situated abroad brought within the reach of the law of the land from which they have escaped.
In his inaugural address Union Minister of State for Personnel & PMO Jitendra Singh highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for developing an administrative ecosystem which has zero tolerance for corruption.
“Taking inspiration from him, India’s presidency will aim to focus on pragmatic action-oriented steps in addressing the wider implications of corruption to strengthen international cooperation on anti-corruption matters and deepen the G20 commitment towards countering the corrupt actors and corruption,” he said.
The meeting holds a special significance for India in the wake of economic offenders and absconders fleeing the country after committing crime and taking refuge in foreign land. In the absence of smooth bilateral ties, securing extradition of such offenders has been a time consuming and tedious process.
“Economic offences have been a problem faced by many, especially when the offenders flee from the jurisdiction of the country. India has put in place a specialized legislation in this regard, in the form of Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, where FEO is defined as an individual against whom a warrant of arrest in relation to scheduled offence has been issued by any court in India and who has left the country so as to avoid criminal prosecution; or the FEO abroad refuses to return to face criminal prosecution”, said Singh.
Following the concluding session, a joint press briefing was conducted by Rahul Singh, Additional Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training and Chair, G20 ACWG, along with Giovanni Tartaglia Polcini, Head of Task Force and Co-chair, G20 ACWG, Italy.
Singh informed the press about the discussions that took place in the three days of the meeting. He said that there had been intensive and productive deliberations on several key focal areas, which included presentations and interventions of country delegates and experts from UNODC, OECD, Egmont Group, Interpol and IMF.
Singh further stated that it had been the endeavor of the delegates to arrive at a consensus on the draft text of the agenda for ACWG during India’s G20 presidency. He informed that considerable progress had been made in discussing the high-level principles on improving information sharing for fighting corruption and related economic crimes, strengthening asset recovery mechanisms, law enforcement cooperation and promoting integrity and effectiveness of public bodies responsible for preventing and combating corruption.
On the first day of the ACWG, a side event was held on leveraging ICT (information and communications technology) to curb corruption in public sector, an area in which India’s recent initiatives like the GEM Portal and DBT have been globally recognized. During this event, leading experts from India showcased how India had adopted the power of ICT to curb corruption in public service delivery.
All work and play
Serious and heavy subject like anti-corruption sure needed some extra dose of fun and entertainment for the delegates. And Haryana left no stone unturned in ensuring that the meeting of the Anti-Corruption Working Group, which it got to host under G20, was as spectacular as it could get.
Right from food to art, culture, heritage and even yoga – everything was displayed with great aplomb. The guests were given Haryanvi turbans to wear to the beats of ‘nagara’ and other traditional percussion instruments. Over 200 replicas of artefacts from 5000-year-old Harappan civilisation, excavated from Rakhigarhi last year, were put up.
In keeping with 2023 being the International Year of Millets, dishes made with coarse grains such as bajra rotis, khichri prepared by local help groups were served for the guests. Sweets from various parts of the state were lined up, such as jalebi from Gohana in Sonepat, imarti from Ferozepur Jhirka in Nuh, peda from Hansi, and gajak / rewri from Rohtak.
The décor had information weaved in about the state government’s Parivar Pehchan Patra and IT-based public welfare schemes. The state’s Republic Day tableau served as the centre piece of attraction at the main venue.
For a flavour of jungle safari, the delegates were taken to Sultanpur National Sanctuary where they planted saplings in a special area dedicated to the summit, followed by a guided tour by ornithologists from Delhi NCR, who helped in identifying resident as well as migratory birds at the sanctuary.
“I have been blown away by the hospitality so far,” said Takako Sato from Japan. She added “The sessions over the last three days have been immensely fruitful. I have been even more surprised to see the beauty of India and it only gives us an opportunity to discover it through such excursions.”
