Minister of International Development Erik Solheim today launched the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ new anti-corruption project with Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen.

“Corruption is theft. People in poor parts of the world are being robbed of millions every day. This has enormous consequences, not only for individuals, but also for the economic and social development opportunities of poor countries,” says Mr Solheim, who today presented the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ anti-corruption project.

The Government has made the fight against corruption one of the main priorities of its development cooperation. The anti-corruption project is intended to generate proposals on how Norway can strengthen its international efforts against corruption, and how Norwegian funds can be protected against misuse even more effectively. Norway already contributes to the fight against corruption in many different ways in it’s bilateral and multilateral development cooperation. These include supporting an international network of anti-corruption campaigners, such as Norway’s Eva Joly.

“People in Norway must be able to feel confident that development assistance funds are reaching those who need them. At the same time, if we are to contribute in the fight against poverty and corruption, we will often need to cooperate with countries in which there is widespread corruption. We therefore want to do what we can to support countries that are willing to tackle the problem,” says Mr Solheim.

Corruption is an international problem that needs to be solved through better international rules to prevent funds that are illegally diverted from developing countries being hidden in tax havens or being laundered through investments in rich parts of the world.

“We are fighting the use of so-called tax havens to evade tax through international cooperation on tax matters. Other forums and types of cooperation are needed in the fight against money laundering, corruption, embezzlement and fraud. These types of misuse of funds have clear common factors. They involve the hiding of money and ownership. With a common ‘enemy’ of this type, is important that we support each other’s efforts to combat the so-called tax havens,” says Minister of Finance Kristin Halvorsen.

“We also need to do what we can to ensure that funds diverted through corruption are returned to those who are entitled to them. This is one of the themes that will be discussed at the first meeting of the states parties to the UN Convention against Corruption in Jordan next week. I believe it is important that Norway supports constructive initiatives in this area,” says Mr Solheim, who will himself be attending the meeting.

The mandate for the anti-corruption project, read here (PDF).

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