This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BRASILIA 001714 
 
SIPDIS 
 
ALDAC 
 
USAID FOR LAC/AA AND LAC/SAM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD PGOV ECON BR
SUBJECT: FOURTH GLOBAL FORUM ON FIGHTING CORRUPTION 
BRASILIA, BRAZIL; JUNE 7-10, 2005 
 
REF: A. BRASILIA 1494 
     ¶B. BRASILIA 1544 
 
¶1.  Summary.  The IV Global Forum on Fighting Corruption (GF 
IV): "From Words to Deeds" was held from June 7 to 10 in 
Brasilia, Brazil.  An estimated 1800 representatives from 103 
countries including government officials and representatives 
from international organizations and civil society 
participated in a series of workshops, panels, and special 
conferences to discuss the effectiveness of international 
conventions, money laundering, public procurement, 
e-government, corruption measurement, conflicts of interest, 
and corruption at the local level.  GF IV was organized by 
the Brazilian government's Comptroller General's Office in 
cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 
(UNDOC), and Brazilian NGO Transparencia Brasil.  Despite the 
government of Brazil's organizational and planning 
shortcomings, GF IV was at the end of the day a respectable 
showing - a gathering of senior government experts to push 
the international anti-corruption agenda forward.  The United 
States effectively advanced key national security objectives 
in strengthening political will globally to fight corruption. 
 End Summary. 
 
-------------------- 
MINISTERIAL SESSIONS 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  President Bush's Statement:  GF IV provided a clear and 
demonstrable commitment to support President Bush's agenda on 
fighting corruption and the Bush administration's broad 
foreign policy on development, security, and good governance. 
 On June 10, US. Ambassador to Brazil John Danilovich read a 
message from President Bush to GF IV delegates during the 
closing ceremony.  In his message, the President indicated 
that the United States would stand by nations that fight 
corruption, embrace freedom, and promote the rule of law. 
The President also declared that his administration is 
committed to working with other partners to "deny safe haven 
to the corrupt, their corrupters, and their tainted assets." 
In the President's statement, Ambassador Danilovich also 
reaffirmed the Bush administration's commitment to 
cooperating with other countries to fight corruption and 
explained that the USG will play an active role in fighting 
corruption and fostering democracy through the Millennium 
Challenge Account.  The United States delegation achieved the 
objectives it set out to accomplish at GF IV including 
globalizing the President's "No Safe Haven" Initiative and 
encouraging countries to sign, ratify, and implement the UN 
Convention Against Corruption.  Both of these objectives are 
reflected in the Final GF IV Declaration. 
 
¶3. President Lula's Keynote Remarks:  During his opening 
remarks on June 7, Brazilian President Lula da Silva used the 
GF IV platform to seize the offensive in confronting 
corruption scandals that plagued his administration.  (Note: 
Earlier that day, Lula fired a number of corrupt postal 
service and Brazilian Reinsurance Institute employees. 
During the final days of the conference, the treasurer of 
Lula's Workers' Party (PT) was accused of buying votes in 
Congress (reftels A and B).  End Note).  Despite corruption 
allegations, Lula promised to fight corruption in Brazil and 
stated that his administration would "cut its own flesh, if 
necessary" to root out corruption. 
 
¶4. US Head of Delegation Adolfo Franco told local daily 
"Correio Brasiliense" that Lula showed his commitment to 
investigating corruption allegations thoroughly, even if 
those investigations included members of his own 
administration or political party.  US Ambassador to Brazil 
Danilovich believed that Lula defined the problem of 
corruption clearly during his opening remarks and showed his 
personal commitment to the fight against corruption. 
 
------------------------------------ 
HIGHLIGHTS FROM WORKSHOPS AND PANELS 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶5. The US delegation demonstrated the Bush administration's 
high-level commitment to prevent and combat corruption to 
advance its national security and foreign policy agenda; 
highlighted and helped advance key administration initiatives 
on fighting corruption and promoting good governance (e.g., 
the President's "No Safe Haven" policy, the G8 
Anti-corruption and Transparency initiative, and the 
Millennium Challenge Account); provided other governments the 
experience of qualified US experts in specific measures 
against corruption; assured that conference result did not 
detract from US policies or positions on anti-corruption 
issues also addressed in other international fora; and 
conducted informal bilateral discussions with other 
governments. 
 
¶6. Law Enforcement:  Several panels on law enforcement and 
international instruments focused on the need for effective 
implementation of the United Nations Convention Against 
Corruption and the encouragement of developed countries to 
sign and ratify it.  There was also discussion on the need to 
improve follow-up mechanisms on the various international 
anti-corruption frameworks around the world. 
 
¶7. Civil Society:  On June 8, US Delegation Head and USAID 
Assistant Administrator for Latin America and Caribbean 
Bureau Adolfo Franco moderated the "Civil Society: Improving 
Control Mechanisms workshop."  Franco highlighted 
anti-corruption efforts in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, and Uganda. 
 Franco stressed the importance of NGOs, churches, and the 
media, and challenged governments to improve their 
relationships with these institutions.  Through cooperation 
with civil society institutions, Franco believed that 
governments could combat corruption effectively. 
 
¶8. Money Laundering:  The GF IV money laundering workshop 
focused on investigations into corruption during former 
Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's tenure.  Panelists 
identified asset recovery challenges and stressed the 
importance of effective international cooperation during the 
asset recovery phase.  Panelists also stressed the importance 
of developing stronger legislation and self-regulation rules 
in the private sector.  To safeguard assets from being 
stolen, panelists suggested that governments create 
country-specific trust funds with International Financial 
Institutions (IFIs), establish third-party fund monitoring, 
and use recovered funds to settle debts. 
 
¶9. Public Procurement:  The public procurement workshop 
focused on the need for government procurement regimes to 
ensure transparency and efficiency during the public 
procurement process.  Workshop participants recommended that 
governments monitor drafting and contract requirements during 
the public procurement process.  To ensure transparency and 
accountability, panelists discussed the importance of making 
public procurement and government contract information 
available and easily accessible to the public. 
 
¶10. Measuring Corruption:  The measuring corruption workshop 
focused on measuring corruption accurately and improving 
measurement tools such as the Corruption Perceptions Index 
and the Global Integrity Report.  Panelists and participants 
agreed that corruption measurement tools are imprecise and 
can negatively impact investment or development aid given to 
developing countries.  Participants also noted that 
developing countries do not receive a high score on 
corruption indices because they are poor, while developed 
countries receive a high score by virtue of their wealth. 
All panelists agreed that corruption measurement tools are 
valuable in fighting corruption, however some emphasized that 
corruption tools should focus on governments actions to 
combat corruption. 
 
¶11. Conflict of Interest:  This workshop focused upon 
conflict of interest codes of conduct in New York City, 
Canada, and Argentina.  New York City's conflict of interest 
system relies on code compliance, effective implementation, 
and code monitoring.  Canada allows a conflict of interest 
agency to monitor high level public employees to ensure 
recusal.  In Argentina, recent attempts to establish a 
federal conflict of interest system led to poor public 
confidence in government officials because a number of public 
officials do not report conflict of interest cases to local 
authorities.  The Argentine government discovered that 
publishing conflict of interest information on the Internet 
helped improve public confidence in local officials. 
 
¶12.  Improving Integrity in Border and Fiscal Agencies: 
The border and fiscal agency panel was comprised of customs 
administrators and tax authorities from a number of different 
countries.  Panelists discussed the challenges that 
corruption poses in the international tax and customs arenas. 
 Arthur Sinai, US Customs and Border Inspection Acting 
Assistant Commissioner for Management Inspections and 
Integrity Assurance, represented the USG on this panel.  Mr. 
Sinai noted that the US Customs Agency's role has been 
redefined to ensure that global security measures are being 
developed and that ongoing global efforts against corruption 
are not jeopardized. 
 
¶13. Political Financing:  Panelists focused on the high level 
of distrust of political parties, especially when irregular 
or illegal funding is involved. Craig Donsanto, from the US 
Department of Justice, addressed the ten &building blocks8 
of a good regime to combat corruption in political financing, 
and explained that the USG does not follow some of these 
elements due to constitutional protections of free speech. 
--------------------- 
GF IV FINAL STATEMENT 
--------------------- 
 
¶14. Begin Final Statement: 
 
¶1. The Heads of Delegation, meeting in Brasilia, on June 7, 
8, 9 and 10, 2005, for the Fourth Global Forum on Fighting 
Corruption, renew, with this Declaration, their commitment to 
continue working together toward the common objective of 
preventing and fighting corruption. 
¶2. To this end, they reaffirm the importance of the Global 
Forums, which were developed with a view to exchange 
knowledge and to promote implementation of legal instruments 
against corruption. 
¶3. Recognize that corruption is a complex economic, political 
and social problem that threatens democracy, economic growth 
and the rule of law, contributes, in particular, to corrupt 
practices and to the spread of organized crime and terrorism 
and has destructive repercussions in every sphere of our 
societies. For this reason, they further underscore the 
Global Forum concept as an effective platform for the 
exchange of experiences and the promotion of international 
cooperation aimed at confronting corruption in all of its 
manifestations. 
¶4. Within the scope of the Fourth Global Forum, based around 
the theme "From Words to Deeds," the Heads of Delegation: 
Reaffirm their commitment to the effective implementation of 
the international anti-corruption conventions and recognize, 
in particular, the importance of signing and ratifying the 
United Nations Convention against Corruption; 
Emphasize the need for capacity-building and the continual 
improvement and enhancement of the follow-up mechanisms for 
the international anti-corruption conventions in force, to 
which their countries are parties; 
Encourage governments to deny safe haven to corrupt persons 
and entities "public and private" and their corruptly 
acquired assets, and to those who corrupt them, and to 
promote cooperation on extradition, mutual legal assistance 
and the recovery and return of proceeds of corruption; 
Underscore the contribution the Global Forums have made since 
the first edition to the discussions on the prevention and 
fight against corruption and promoting good governance, as 
well as the culture of integrity and express their desire 
that the Forum's proposals and conclusions be given practical 
implementation. 
Fifth Global Forum 
The Heads of Delegation applaud the leadership of South 
Africa in accepting to host the Fifth Global Forum on 
Fighting Corruption and express their intention to cooperate 
to the extent possible in the organization of the Fifth 
Global Forum on Fighting Corruption. 
Brasilia, June 10, 2005. 
End Final Statement. 
 
--------------------------------- 
CONCLUSION AND OVERALL ASSESSMENT 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶15.  Although GF IV ran smoothly, the days and months leading 
up to the Forum were plagued with poor planning and a lack of 
available public information.  Unlike previous events that 
focused on corruption internationally, GF IV focused on 
Brazil, which was not surprising given the corruption 
scandals at the time of the conference.  Although Lula used 
the GF IV platform to appear strong against corruption and 
dismissed a number of low-level officials during GF IV, only 
time will tell if he is serious about fighting corruption. 
It will be interesting to ascertain whether the Brazilian 
anti-corruption experience will be worth noting as a success 
in 2007 or whether Lula's declarations during the week become 
a footnote in history as an opportunity wasted to fight 
corruption in Brazil. 
 
¶16.  Compared to past Forums, few ministers participated in 
GF IV and the GOB was unable to confirm how many Ministers 
would attend GF IV less than one week before it began. 
Despite the Brazilian organizers' shortcomings, the US 
Delegation was able to achieve its goals for the event. 
President Bush's "No Safe Haven" policy is now truly global, 
having been adopted by over 103 nations that attended GF IV. 
 
¶17.  At the conclusion of GF IV, the government of South 
Africa organized in Brasilia the first series of preparatory 
meetings for the Fifth Global Forum (GF V) in 2007.  It is 
envisaged that the South Africans will make GF V a true 
ministerial again in 2007 and restore prestige to the event. 
When the international community meets for GF V, the UN 
Convention will also likely enter into force. 
 
DANILOVICH