The Union Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, has announced that the G20 nations will focus on ways to trace and extradite fugitive economic offenders more quickly, as well as the recovery of stolen assets, during the Anti-Corruption Working Group meeting, which is set to begin on March 1st.
The meeting will take place in Gurugram and will involve discussions on the global fight against corruption, which will include reaffirming the commitment towards countering corruption worldwide.
Singh emphasized that corruption has a negative impact on the effective use of resources, and governance, and affects the poorest and marginalized in society the most. He also stated that India’s G20 presidency is marked by unprecedented economic, geopolitical, and climate challenges.
Under India’s chairpersonship, the G20 nations will deliberate on ways to bring in processes that will allow for the quick tracing and extradition of fugitive economic offenders, as well as bringing their assets back to the country they escaped from. Singh highlighted the importance of enhancing the effectiveness of asset-tracing and identification mechanisms, developing mechanisms for rapid restraint of illicit assets, and promoting effective use of open-source information and asset recovery networks.
India’s chairmanship will also support the G20 countries in prioritizing the recovery and return of stolen assets in their comprehensive strategy against corruption. The meeting will explore the proactive sharing of information, improving existing mutual legal assistance frameworks, and simplifying mechanisms for sharing information between domestic law enforcement authorities in criminal matters.
Singh said that transparent regulatory frameworks and effective internal control mechanisms to combat corruption are the need of the hour. A ‘side event’ on leveraging information and communication technology for combating corruption in the public sector has been planned as part of the 1st ACWG meeting. India will showcase its experience from implementing a citizen-centric governance model to demonstrate the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in preventing, detecting, and fighting corruption by creating common ICT platforms for higher transparency & best practices.
Singh expressed hope that the 1st ACWG meeting will generate a concerted effort to enhance awareness about anti-corruption and impart education and capacity building among others. The G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group has been at the forefront of guiding the anti-corruption initiatives of the member countries since its inception in 2010.
