The Vatican published a paper on corruption last month.
It doesn't matter that you're not a Catholic: it doesn't matter that you don't believe in anything. This is worth reading. They're a lot more on the ball than most organisations I can think of.
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There’s a sense of irony here – the Vatican *would* have a lot ot say in this topic 🙂
Better the sinner who repents, I say….
Come on Dennis, the Vatican document may be even longer than some of Richard’s longest posts on this blog but there’s an important message here. It echoes concerns, raised very recently by a senior Christian Aid official — see http://xrl.us/ssfr (Link to http://andrewgoodall.co.uk) — about the impact of tax havens and capital flight on poor countries. To quote from the Vatican document:
“ … we are dealing with enormous amounts of resources that are taken away from the economy, from production and from social programmes. The costs are borne by the citizens: the price of corruption is paid by using monies intended for the legitimate use of society.”
“ … A ready climate for corruption is fostered by a lack of transparency in international finances, by the existence of financial havens and by the disparity between the level at which corruption is fought — often limited to the level of single States — and the level at which corruption is carried out, usually at the supranational and international levels.”
“ … On the international level, the fight against corruption requires that people work together to increase transparency in economic and financial transactions and to enact within different countries uniform legislation in this area. At the present time funds arising from corruption are easily concealed, as are the dishonest gains of corrupt governments; these governments are able to export huge amounts of capital effortlessly with many forms of complicity. Harmonized or uniform legislation is to be encouraged as a step in prevention, so that poor countries do not attract this illicit capital solely because such uniform legislation is lacking.”
Christian Aid’s head of Africa policy said the UK has “contributed significantly” to the inability of African countries to raise taxes effectively. Although about £25bn flows into African in aid and loans each year, an estimated £200bn flows out of the continent into UK and other northern banks, he said, “through corruption, money laundering and other criminal means”.
Babatunde Olugboji said (in the Tax Justice Network’s quarterly newsletter): “In a number of African countries, especially the resource rich nations, huge multinationals have negotiated considerable tax holidays for themselves, while others, in collusion with government officials, evade or avoid taxes and export such unpaid amounts to third countries, mostly tax havens.”