- Title: Kerry, Cameron and Buhari pledge to fight corruption at London summit
- Date: 12th May 2016
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MAY 12, 2016) (HOST BROADCASTER POOL) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, DAVID CAMERON, TALKING ON PANEL WITH, PRESIDENT OF WORLD BANK, JIM YONG KIM, AUTHOR, SARAH CHAYES, U.S SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY AND NIGERIAN PRESIDENT, MUHAMMADU BUHARI (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, DAVID CAMERON, SAYING: "Why I think this matters so much is that I believe that corruption is the cancer at the heart of so many problems we need to tackle in our world." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, DAVID CAMERON, SAYING: "We are making some real progress at this summit. There's a very clear declaration you can read where world leaders and countries are coming together with a very clear declaration. There's a communiqué of a very clear set of actions and crucially there is country by country commitments that countries are making to tackle the actions of corruption that people will be able to check up on and report back on." CAMERON INTRODUCES KERRY (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "Corruption writ large is as much of an enemy because it destroys nation states as some of the extremists we're fighting or as some of the other challenges we face. Some people may say that's hogwash how can that be. Corruption tears at the entire fabric of a society." (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "I have found as secretary of state - I'll just be blunt with you - I've been shocked by the the degree to which I find corruption pandemic in the world today." WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S SECRETARY OF STATE, JOHN KERRY, SAYING: "And the extremism we see in the world today comes in no small degree from the utter exasperation that people have with the sense that the system is rigged. And we this anger manifesting itself in different forms in different elections around the world - including ours. People are angry and the anger is going to grow, unless we shut the doors and try to prove to people there's a fairness that can be established in the system." CAMERON INTRODUCES PRESIDENT BUHARI, WHILE SITTING NEXT TO KERRY (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIAN PRESIDENT, MUHAMMADU BUHARI, SAYING: "Nigeria is calling on this summit to create an anti-corruption infrastructure and a strategic action plan that will include the monitoring, tracing and facilitating the recovery of stolen funds and assets hidden in secret accounts abroad." CHAYES THANKS CAMERON FOR SUMMIT (SOUNDBITE) (English) AUTHOR, SARAH CHAYES, SAYING: "This summit and the dynamic that it is launching which will take on a life of its own, hopefully, is an extraordinary opportunity to begin to bring actions in line with rhetoric that has already changed a lot. Please seize it." PANEL STANDING UP
- Embargoed: 27th May 2016 13:10
- Keywords: Corruption Britain Nigeria U.S Kerry Cameron Buhari
- Location: LONDON,ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City: LONDON,ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0014HI5S93
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES
Prime Minister David Cameron pledged on Thursday (May 12) to set up a public register to show who owns properties in Britain, in an effort to stop stolen funds being laundered through London's property market.
He was speaking at the opening of the global global anti-corruption summit he is hosting in London, but critics said the proposed register may not be enough to make a meaningful impact on the scourge of graft.
"We are making some real progress at this summit. There's a very clear declaration you can read where world leaders and countries are coming together with a very clear declaration. There's a communique of a very clear set of actions and crucially there is country by country commitments that countries are making to tackle the actions of corruption that people will be able to check up on and report back on," said Cameron.
Cameron put tackling corruption, including tax avoidance, at the heart of his agenda when he hosted a summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialised democracies in 2013.
He has sought to present the summit, which brings together leaders such as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, as a milestone in that campaign.
Kerry, who described corruption as a "pandemic", said the urgency of tackling corruption was real and failure to do so would lead to global unrest.
"And the extremism we see in the world today comes in no small degree from the utter exasperation that people have with the sense that the system is rigged. And we this anger manifesting itself in different forms in different elections around the world - including ours. People are angry and the anger is going to grow, unless we shut the doors and try to prove to people there's a fairness that can be established in the system," he said.
The build-up to the event was marred by Cameron being caught on camera describing Nigeria and Afghanistan, which are both taking part, as "fantastically corrupt", but he later said that the leaders of both countries were tackling the problem.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari responded on Wednesday by saying the UK must return assets held there by corrupt Nigerians.
On Thursday he proposed to set up a strategic action plan to recover such assets.
"Nigeria is calling on this summit to create an anti-corruption infrastructure and a strategic action plan that will include the monitoring, tracing and facilitating the recovery of stolen funds and assets hidden in secret accounts abroad," Buhari said.
Under the new arrangement announced by Cameron on Thursday, any foreign company that wants to buy property in Britain or bid for a central government contract would have to join the new register of beneficial ownership.
The register, which London said would be the first of its kind in the world, will include companies that already own property in Britain, not just those wishing to buy.
The aim is to expose individuals who hide behind shell companies with obscure names to own properties, a particularly acute problem in London's luxury real estate sector.
The capital has been hit by repeated scandals involving luxury homes owned by corrupt politicians from countries such as Nigeria or Libya.
The release of the "Panama Papers", leaked documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that named many British businessmen and politicians among the list of clients, put tax avoidance at the top of the global agenda.
Some critics said they doubted that Britain's new register would make much impact unless overseas tax havens cooperated by also making public the names of those who own companies. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None