Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the IV Global Forum on Fighting Corruption
Brasilia – 2005
Before I begin, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to you for joining us here in Brasilia for the opening of the IV Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and take this opportunity to welcome the Ministers of State, Heads of Delegation, Delegates and guests gathered here with us tonight.
In May of 2003, at the closing ceremony of the III Global Forum on Fighting Corruption, in Seoul, South Korea, I pledged to you, on behalf of our President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, that Brazil, honored to have been chosen to host the IV Global Forum and fully supportive of the initiative, would welcome you with open arms.
The President of the Republic is here with us tonight to personally greet you and offer some remarks.
The event at which we gather tonight marks an important milestone on the road toward increased dialogue and cooperation among States, civil society and peoples to confront and adopt policy courses, adjust strategies and procedures, aimed at overcoming or preventing, the inequalities and injustice that beset current economic and social relations.
I believe that contemporary generations face the challenge of joining, in the construction of a collective democratic world, a momentous struggle to secure a new civilizing, universal epoch, once again reclaiming aspirations, core ideas and principles that never die, that may be repressed, stampeded, but that never disappear: the restoration of the dignity of human beings, of citizenship, everywhere, in every nation, of our tiny, threatened planet.
The effort must be persistent, based on partnerships that gradually spread through the various social spheres to confront those dark, defiant shadows that threaten the coexistence, peace and freedom of people everywhere. Ghosts born of the Dark Ages, of intolerance, selfishness and arrogance. Ghosts that advance and grow to produce all sort of injustice and crime: whether it be the senseless concentration of wealth and income, geographic and social, that drives the perverse and growing inequalities, not only between rich and poor countries, but between the rich and poor within countries, as we noted at the 2003 Forum in Seoul; or whether it be the “insidious plague of corruption,” to which the eminent Secretary-General Kofi Annan alluded in exhorting nations to sign the United Nations Convention against Crime, on the occasion of entering the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime into force. Corruption destroys and undermines democracy, the rule of law, violates the fundamental rights of human beings, hinders and prevents development, facilitates and gives life to crime and terrorism, the social ills of our world.
This event we gather at every two years, a valuable endeavor in the quest to deepen existing relations among peoples, Nation-States, expanding international cooperation, enabling useful experiences to be enhanced and exchanged, signals progress in the fight against corruption and organized crime in our day.
The I Forum held in Washington D.C., in 1999, was titled the “I Global Forum on Fighting Corruption: Safeguarding Integrity among Justice and Security Officials.” Its aim was to identify the causes of corruption and to stimulate discussion on effective methods for combating the problem.
The II Forum took place in The Hague, in 2001, and was based around the theme “Combating Corruption through Integrity, Transparency and Responsibility.” The Forum underscored the importance of engaging civil society, the private sector and the media in the development and implementation of effective strategies to combat corruption.
In 2003, the III Global Forum, which I attended as President Lula’s representative and Head of the Brazilian Delegation, convened in Seoul, South Korea. Organized around the theme “Growing Challenges, Shared Responsibilities,” the Forum addressed bribery, nepotism, money laundering, illegal transfers of assets, mutual legal assistance, sanction and control mechanisms, political financing and the role of governments in promoting transparency.
The IV Global Forum we inaugurate here tonight in this emerging city of Brasilia, the capital of hope, to borrow André Malraux’s words, will be founded on the challenge “From Words to Deeds.” The title reflects the proliferation of studies on the causes, effects and strategies for preventing and combating corruption. Corruption is no longer a forbidden subject, one prohibited by the “owners of power,” as was traditionally the case, except when it served their interests. Instead, it has emerged to become a key item on the agenda of governments and multilateral organizations. The number of civil society organizations engaged in this struggle has steadily grown.
For this reason, I believe that we have an ideal environment in which to promote changes and reforms capable of making a difference in the fight against corruption. The international instruments in this area have become increasingly effective and influential. The theme of this Forum implies proceeding directly to full debate, international dialogue, to calling civil society to action, in other words to determined cooperation among nations, institutions and individuals in the effort against corruption.
We’ve worked hard to organize this IV Global Forum, in cooperation with the International Organizing Committee, the inestimable participation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the professional collaboration of Transparency Brazil, not to mention the mighty team effort of our brave and unimpeachable colleagues at CGU and the tireless efforts of experts at the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Secom. We decided to focus our program on transparency and the access to information. There is a common thread that runs through all of the workshop discussions, namely, the challenge of increasing visibility, the need for governments to ensure transparency and the critical, inescapable need to expand the public’s access to information.
The discussions at the Forum will be based on presentations and debates centered on the international conventions on money laundering, conflicts of interests, public procurement, corruption measurement, e-government, civil society’s participation, political financing, the role of the media, ombudsman offices, border protection agencies and law enforcement.
These are all current and relevant issues in our world that challenge our ability to develop creative and coordinated solutions. How do we address the issue of corruption, for example? When will our responses surpass the prevailing perception indexes? How do we avoid or reduce potential public or private conflicts of interests, while safeguarding the interests of society and the State, without depriving the latter of the private agents that fuel many of its activities? How do we ensure effective monitoring mechanisms for the implementation of the international conventions? How much longer will we allow the money derived from organized crime’s illicit endeavors to be deposited in tax havens, while victimized populations continue to live in privation? We are gathered at this significant biannual event to answer precisely these questions.
With your permission, we will also present a panel on Brazil’s experiences in the fight against corruption. In January of 2003, the newly installed administration of President Lula established the Office of Comptroller General within the Presidency of the Republic. Shortly thereafter, Law 10683, of 28 May 2003, vested the agency with a solid organizational structure and specific duties and authority. The agency’s mission is to safeguard public assets and to oversee the application of federal funds, countering all potential embezzlement and waste. It is the duty of the State Minister of Control and Transparency to supervise the Comptroller General Office’s work through its various connected entities, including the Federal Secretariat for Internal Control, the Brazilian Office of Ombudsman and the Council on Public Transparency and Combating Corruption, whose 20 members are equally divided between representatives of government and civil society.
The Comptroller General’s Office has sought to fulfill the mission set out by President Lula to wage a relentless and determined day-to-day campaign against corruption. We have prosecuted a serious effort, one that is unprecedented in our nation’s history. The actions undertaken to dismantle each hornet’s nest of corruptions, one by one, stem from the underlying guidelines established by the administration to confront the problem: coordinated and complementary actions among State agencies and the promotion of civil society’s participation in controlling and tracking the application of public resources.
Therein lies the secret of our many victories against corruption. We have broken with the decades-old practice of either turning a blind eye to the criminal embezzlement of public resources or fighting it in an irresolute, bureaucratic and ineffective manner. We’ve recruited Brazilian citizens into the effort against corruption, for it is also their struggle; we found that coordinated action strengthens us. We’re on the right path, but we know the battle will be long and arduous. The problem is a centuries-old one, a historic ill.
Since antiquity, since the time of the Greeks, corruption has existed and been combated. In one of his works from the IV century B.C., Aristotle identifies corruption as a factor in the dissolution, the destruction of social coexistence. As murder is an age-old crime, that never disappears, never ends, we continue to fight it. What we cannot do is allow corruption to go unpunished. More than ever, the fight against this type of criminal activity cannot be put off. For corruption prevents economic, social and cultural progress, it ruins democracy, destroying what is most cherished about democracy: the pledge to fight for human liberty, for the irrevocable dignity of all human beings.
In a country like ours, corruption annihilates the lives of children – stealing their school lunches – or kills the oldest among us by blocking access to medications that are diverted from public health services. We must combat corruption with courage. Corruption, after all, does not respect borders, nor does it distinguish between rich or poor nations. We have to confront it, therefore, shoulder to shoulder, until we can declare victory in the battle for democracy and human civilization. For there cannot be democracy without citizenship. There cannot be citizenship without respect for fundamental social rights, for the existence of the human person. Democracy means the inclusion of all people in our world today. It is my hope that the Global Forum will continue to serve as a privileged venue where we can reflect on our common problems and forge paths for solving them together, on behalf of proper administrative conduct, of ethics. Specifically, the ethics that solidify the human condition, that see in the human person more than simply the objective of building a human civilization, but rather the end, the essence of this effort.
Thank you very much,
Minister Waldir Pires
Before I begin, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to you for joining us here in Brasilia for the opening of the IV Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and take this opportunity to welcome the Ministers of State, Heads of Delegation, Delegates and guests gathered here with us tonight.
In May of 2003, at the closing ceremony of the III Global Forum on Fighting Corruption, in Seoul, South Korea, I pledged to you, on behalf of our President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, that Brazil, honored to have been chosen to host the IV Global Forum and fully supportive of the initiative, would welcome you with open arms.
The President of the Republic is here with us tonight to personally greet you and offer some remarks.
The event at which we gather tonight marks an important milestone on the road toward increased dialogue and cooperation among States, civil society and peoples to confront and adopt policy courses, adjust strategies and procedures, aimed at overcoming or preventing, the inequalities and injustice that beset current economic and social relations.
I believe that contemporary generations face the challenge of joining, in the construction of a collective democratic world, a momentous struggle to secure a new civilizing, universal epoch, once again reclaiming aspirations, core ideas and principles that never die, that may be repressed, stampeded, but that never disappear: the restoration of the dignity of human beings, of citizenship, everywhere, in every nation, of our tiny, threatened planet.
The effort must be persistent, based on partnerships that gradually spread through the various social spheres to confront those dark, defiant shadows that threaten the coexistence, peace and freedom of people everywhere. Ghosts born of the Dark Ages, of intolerance, selfishness and arrogance. Ghosts that advance and grow to produce all sort of injustice and crime: whether it be the senseless concentration of wealth and income, geographic and social, that drives the perverse and growing inequalities, not only between rich and poor countries, but between the rich and poor within countries, as we noted at the 2003 Forum in Seoul; or whether it be the “insidious plague of corruption,” to which the eminent Secretary-General Kofi Annan alluded in exhorting nations to sign the United Nations Convention against Crime, on the occasion of entering the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime into force. Corruption destroys and undermines democracy, the rule of law, violates the fundamental rights of human beings, hinders and prevents development, facilitates and gives life to crime and terrorism, the social ills of our world.
This event we gather at every two years, a valuable endeavor in the quest to deepen existing relations among peoples, Nation-States, expanding international cooperation, enabling useful experiences to be enhanced and exchanged, signals progress in the fight against corruption and organized crime in our day.
The I Forum held in Washington D.C., in 1999, was titled the “I Global Forum on Fighting Corruption: Safeguarding Integrity among Justice and Security Officials.” Its aim was to identify the causes of corruption and to stimulate discussion on effective methods for combating the problem.
The II Forum took place in The Hague, in 2001, and was based around the theme “Combating Corruption through Integrity, Transparency and Responsibility.” The Forum underscored the importance of engaging civil society, the private sector and the media in the development and implementation of effective strategies to combat corruption.
In 2003, the III Global Forum, which I attended as President Lula’s representative and Head of the Brazilian Delegation, convened in Seoul, South Korea. Organized around the theme “Growing Challenges, Shared Responsibilities,” the Forum addressed bribery, nepotism, money laundering, illegal transfers of assets, mutual legal assistance, sanction and control mechanisms, political financing and the role of governments in promoting transparency.
The IV Global Forum we inaugurate here tonight in this emerging city of Brasilia, the capital of hope, to borrow André Malraux’s words, will be founded on the challenge “From Words to Deeds.” The title reflects the proliferation of studies on the causes, effects and strategies for preventing and combating corruption. Corruption is no longer a forbidden subject, one prohibited by the “owners of power,” as was traditionally the case, except when it served their interests. Instead, it has emerged to become a key item on the agenda of governments and multilateral organizations. The number of civil society organizations engaged in this struggle has steadily grown.
For this reason, I believe that we have an ideal environment in which to promote changes and reforms capable of making a difference in the fight against corruption. The international instruments in this area have become increasingly effective and influential. The theme of this Forum implies proceeding directly to full debate, international dialogue, to calling civil society to action, in other words to determined cooperation among nations, institutions and individuals in the effort against corruption.
We’ve worked hard to organize this IV Global Forum, in cooperation with the International Organizing Committee, the inestimable participation of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the professional collaboration of Transparency Brazil, not to mention the mighty team effort of our brave and unimpeachable colleagues at CGU and the tireless efforts of experts at the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Secom. We decided to focus our program on transparency and the access to information. There is a common thread that runs through all of the workshop discussions, namely, the challenge of increasing visibility, the need for governments to ensure transparency and the critical, inescapable need to expand the public’s access to information.
The discussions at the Forum will be based on presentations and debates centered on the international conventions on money laundering, conflicts of interests, public procurement, corruption measurement, e-government, civil society’s participation, political financing, the role of the media, ombudsman offices, border protection agencies and law enforcement.
These are all current and relevant issues in our world that challenge our ability to develop creative and coordinated solutions. How do we address the issue of corruption, for example? When will our responses surpass the prevailing perception indexes? How do we avoid or reduce potential public or private conflicts of interests, while safeguarding the interests of society and the State, without depriving the latter of the private agents that fuel many of its activities? How do we ensure effective monitoring mechanisms for the implementation of the international conventions? How much longer will we allow the money derived from organized crime’s illicit endeavors to be deposited in tax havens, while victimized populations continue to live in privation? We are gathered at this significant biannual event to answer precisely these questions.
With your permission, we will also present a panel on Brazil’s experiences in the fight against corruption. In January of 2003, the newly installed administration of President Lula established the Office of Comptroller General within the Presidency of the Republic. Shortly thereafter, Law 10683, of 28 May 2003, vested the agency with a solid organizational structure and specific duties and authority. The agency’s mission is to safeguard public assets and to oversee the application of federal funds, countering all potential embezzlement and waste. It is the duty of the State Minister of Control and Transparency to supervise the Comptroller General Office’s work through its various connected entities, including the Federal Secretariat for Internal Control, the Brazilian Office of Ombudsman and the Council on Public Transparency and Combating Corruption, whose 20 members are equally divided between representatives of government and civil society.
The Comptroller General’s Office has sought to fulfill the mission set out by President Lula to wage a relentless and determined day-to-day campaign against corruption. We have prosecuted a serious effort, one that is unprecedented in our nation’s history. The actions undertaken to dismantle each hornet’s nest of corruptions, one by one, stem from the underlying guidelines established by the administration to confront the problem: coordinated and complementary actions among State agencies and the promotion of civil society’s participation in controlling and tracking the application of public resources.
Therein lies the secret of our many victories against corruption. We have broken with the decades-old practice of either turning a blind eye to the criminal embezzlement of public resources or fighting it in an irresolute, bureaucratic and ineffective manner. We’ve recruited Brazilian citizens into the effort against corruption, for it is also their struggle; we found that coordinated action strengthens us. We’re on the right path, but we know the battle will be long and arduous. The problem is a centuries-old one, a historic ill.
Since antiquity, since the time of the Greeks, corruption has existed and been combated. In one of his works from the IV century B.C., Aristotle identifies corruption as a factor in the dissolution, the destruction of social coexistence. As murder is an age-old crime, that never disappears, never ends, we continue to fight it. What we cannot do is allow corruption to go unpunished. More than ever, the fight against this type of criminal activity cannot be put off. For corruption prevents economic, social and cultural progress, it ruins democracy, destroying what is most cherished about democracy: the pledge to fight for human liberty, for the irrevocable dignity of all human beings.
In a country like ours, corruption annihilates the lives of children – stealing their school lunches – or kills the oldest among us by blocking access to medications that are diverted from public health services. We must combat corruption with courage. Corruption, after all, does not respect borders, nor does it distinguish between rich or poor nations. We have to confront it, therefore, shoulder to shoulder, until we can declare victory in the battle for democracy and human civilization. For there cannot be democracy without citizenship. There cannot be citizenship without respect for fundamental social rights, for the existence of the human person. Democracy means the inclusion of all people in our world today. It is my hope that the Global Forum will continue to serve as a privileged venue where we can reflect on our common problems and forge paths for solving them together, on behalf of proper administrative conduct, of ethics. Specifically, the ethics that solidify the human condition, that see in the human person more than simply the objective of building a human civilization, but rather the end, the essence of this effort.
Thank you very much,
Minister Waldir Pires
Last modified 14-06-2005 04:18 PM