Fighting corruption together

Corruption fighters at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the World Bank are now set to work together. 

On Monday 10 December, State Secretary Arvinn Gadgil and Integrity Vice President at the World Bank Leonard McCarthy signed an agreement on cooperation between the control units at the World Bank and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

“Major international organisations such as the World Bank receive substantial sums of money from Norway. This agreement will also serve as a model for our cooperation with other organisations. In this way, we can detect corruption and other irregularities more easily,” Mr Gadgil commented. 

Among the major international organisations, the World Bank plays a leading role in the fight against corruption. It has considerable resources for carrying out investigations. It is therefore natural that Norway chose the World Bank as its first cooperation partner in this area. 

The agreement gives the World Bank more extensive obligations to notify Norway of corruption and the misuse of funds. It also goes further than Norway’s current cooperation agreements with UN organisations. Under the agreement, the Foreign Service Control Unit and the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency are to work together in cases of joint interest to prevent, detect and provide evidence of corruption. The two control units are also to notify each other if they discover cases that affect the other party. 

In 2013, Norway and the major UN organisations will negotiate new framework agreements. One of the aims will be to ensure greater transparency as regards how the organisations use the funds from Norway, and to ensure that they combat corruption effectively.