CORRUPTION AND ORGANIZED CRIME 30 September, 2005 The United Nations Convention Against Corruption and The War Against Organized Crime CORRUPTION AND ORGANIZED CRIME 30 September, 2005

129 Nations have signed the Convention On 31 October 2003 the UN Convention against Corruption was adopted by the General Assembly. 129 Nations have signed the Convention On September 14, 2005 the 30th country ratified The UN Convention Against Corruption will enter into force on December 14, 2005 Parallel: The Organized Crime Convention (Palermo) 2

Group of three or more persons that exists during certain time Group of three or more persons that exists during certain time. It acts by previous agreement, with the objective of commiting one or more serious crimes (4 or more years of jail). With the aim of obtaining financial or other material benefit Organized Crime Group Organized Crime Groups exert their powers through the threat and use of violence and corruption. The latter can broadly be understood as the abuse of public power for private gain. O.C. links with Violence and Corruption 3

Different levels of relationship between O.C. and Corruption 1st Level: Bribery (Dollar or the Bullet) 2nd Level: Continuous Acts of Bribery (“On payroll”) 3rd Level: Infiltration into Government Agencies 4th Level: Infiltrating the Government (Higher level) 5th Level: Infiltrating the Political Arena 4

Infiltrating the Political System Organized Crime Group Congressmen Ministers Law Enforcement (For Security) Politicians (Mayors, Governors, etc.) 5

The link between Organized Crime and Corruption 6

How is Political Infiltration Accomplished? Participating in Political Campaigns and winning elections (giving money, media support and others) Buying votes for candidates and corrupting the democratic election process Indirect Campaign Financing Lobbying other politicians for support using bribery and blackmail Exploiting O.C. Members’ family links Creating “debts” for politicians to be “repaid” later by using blackmail and extortion 7

Measures to avoid the infiltration by Organized Crime: Civil Service Reforms - Strengthen the socio-economic status of public officers with competitive performance-based salaries and a career horizon Seek inter-institutional coordination and international mutual legal assistance Penalties for public officials’ conflict of interest; Encourage “whistle-blowers” and other collaborating witnesses; Train and assign undercover investigative officers to corruption-prone government operations/agencies; Reduce abusive judicial/administrative discretion combined with an excessive procedural complexity; Implement Integrity Tests at the operational and tactical levels; Implement public disclosure of public officials’ background and assets. 8

For further information: The Global Program Against Corruption United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime P.O.Box 500 Vienna A-1400 Austria By Fax: +43 (1) 26060-5898 By Phone: +43(1) 26060-4406 http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/corruption.html 9