A noted criminologist and academic has warned that despite sanctions, new laws, and regulatory bodies, corruption around the world is not abating.
Nikos Passas, a Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Northeastern University warned that too many people in high office and directors of companies are willing to “mislead auditors and regulators and falsify records”.
Professor Passas made the disclosure during a keynote address on day one of the virtual Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Caribbean Conference on Corruption, Compliance and Cybercrime (3Cs 2022) which has attracted over 1 000 attendees from 46 countries.
Passas, a Distinguished Practitioner in Financial Integrity and Senior Fellow of the Financial Integrity Institute at Case Western Reserve Law School, told participants that the response to corruption has been too heavy on process with not enough attention paid to practice.
He said unethical behaviour was on the rise with more people willing to take bribes and lie to watchdog agencies and representatives.
“We have thrown money and we have seen the convergence of agendas and rule of law, governance development and anti-corruption, and yet there are signs that we are dropping the ball. The scores on the control of corruption are flat or going down,” Passas asserted.
He said developed countries were mistakenly propagating the idea that their hands were clean and the problem was mainly in developing countries.
“We look at the perception [of corruption] index and we see Denmark is at the top. Then you look at the biggest banking scandal that facilitated corruption and money laundering in the world with hundreds of billions of dollars involved, and it is Danske Bank.
“How can you be the cleanest country in the world and be the home of the company that allowed this corruption scandal to take place overseas? Somehow, the metrics have to take into account what your citizens do overseas – your individual and corporate citizens,” Professor Passas underscored.
Danske Bank, a Danish institution, earlier this year said it was bracing for over US$2 billion in fines to resolve one of the largest money-laundering scandals on record when more than 200 billion Euros of dirty money flowed through one of its European branches from Russia.
According to the world-renowned academic, the belief is that standards of integrity are the same or have deteriorated over the past 18 months and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse.
Pointing to research, he told participants at the CDB conference: “The majority of board members do not want public scrutiny of decisions. What are they afraid of? What are they trying to hide?”
Professor Passas said between 2020 and 2022, there was increasing unethical behaviour in organisations. This was discovered through self-reporting, which means the situation on the ground was actually worse.
In response, he called for more attention not only to process but substance in anti-corruption efforts and promotion of ethics and values.
“We have to convey the point that we are on the same boat and that the interests are common. We are swimming in the same pool, and you cannot designate a corner of your swimming pool as a toilet and expect to swim cleanly in the rest of it . . . . It is either clean or dirty,” Professor Passas said. (IMC1)
