Growing anger at global corruption

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/growing-anger-at-global-corruption

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David Cameron hosts the UK Anti-Corruption Summit on Thursday, which will be attended, in his words, by some of the world’s most “fantastically corrupt countries” (Report, 11 May). The prime minister might consider adding Britain to his list. The UK heads the world’s biggest financial secrecy network. It has sovereignty in over a third of all tax havens worldwide and over half of the companies named in the Panama Papers scandal used a single UK tax haven, the British Virgin Islands. A World Bank analysis of corruption cases worldwide found that British havens dominate.

His attempt to persuade the overseas territories and crown dependencies to open up their registries to the overstretched HMRC and UK law enforcement is neither transparent nor a sufficient deterrent. The aid given to bolster developing nations’ tax takes is nothing when compared with the untaxed corporate profits that haemorrhage out of poor countries’ economies offshore into UK jurisdictions. More than 300 economists have written to Cameron arguing that tax havens have no economic benefit and that Britain’s “deliberate choice” to operate them “fuels corruption”. By refusing to implement the deterrent of making registers of beneficial ownership of UK tax havens public, Mr Cameron ensures that Britain continues to facilitate international tax avoidance, corruption and crime.

The biggest irony of the refusal by Britain and other nations to open up their havens is that doing so would bring in billions onshore, a boon for global public finances. It appears we are stuck: many of the rich and powerful who could open up the havens are busy making personal use of the financial secrecy they have on offer. The Tory government hosting an anti-corruption summit is like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.Diane Abbott MPShadow secretary of state for international development

• Aditya Chakrabortty is right on the money (Corruption can no longer be written off as a developing world problem, Opinion, 10 May). It is all too convenient to think that corruption is something that happens in relatively poor countries and not in Britain. Indeed, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies has just published a report, Redefining corruption: Public attitudes to the relationship between government and business, based on a YouGov survey, which shows that parliament is out of touch with how the public feels about corruption in British politics and business.

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed think that governments should not be permitted to invite private companies to shape regulatory policy; more than two-thirds want the private finance initiative banned; and three-quarters think that ministers and senior civil servants should be prohibited from taking up positions in private business. The survey indicates that the public regard such arrangements as at best collusive and at worst corrupt. Unfortunately, this is not the type of corruption we are likely to hear about from the prime minister at Thursday’s summit.Will McMahonDeputy director, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies

• At the 2013 G8 summit, David Cameron pledged to tackle the secrecy in the tax system that enables corruption. The Panama Papers confirmed, though, that the UK sits at the heart of an international network of tax havens, which allows elites and big businesses to dodge tax here and in some of the world’s poorest countries. It is people living in developing countries who lose most when public services are starved of funding. For example, an international oil company worked aggressively to circumvent a new tax in Uganda by moving its official address to Mauritius, the African tax haven of choice.

Cameron boasts of his commitment to development. Taking tough action on tax havens and financial secrecy will be a test of that commitment (UK Overseas territories resist PM’s call to end tax secrecy, 10 May). It would have a lasting impact on the poorest countries’ ability to collect a fair amount of tax to fund the essential public services that help lift people out of poverty.David MurrayWallington, Surrey

• We also need to consider the impact of the tax evasion revealed in the Panama Papers on the global economy. Economist Gabriel Zucman believes up to 8% of the world’s wealth is tied up in shell companies, with Africa leading the way at 30%. The lost tax revenue on that wealth is crippling for underdeveloped countries as they try to develop infrastructure and boost lagging GDP. As the Panama Papers database goes online, the time is ripe for citizens to pressure their government to take action to recover the losses to their nations. Scott DimondCambridge

• Can you give us the full rundown on the Tory-party donating construction firms found guilty of blacklisting hundreds of workers, thereby depriving them and their families of their livelihoods (Report, 9 May)? The high-level corruption you highlight is disgraceful enough. But it’s the low-level, everyday corruption that is gnawing away at society.John SmithSheffield

• David Cameron ignores the corruption in his own party, while criticising other countries to the Queen. A number of his MPs and/or their close family members have been named as having vested interests in private healthcare companies to which private contracts for NHS services are being awarded. Is this not a form of corruption?Marion JuddDidcot, Oxfordshire

• You might also have pointed out that when government ministers have finished flogging the people’s assets cheaply to private companies, they are legally allowed to accept lucrative directorships from those same companies. If that isn’t corruption in plain sight I don’t know what is.George BennRomsey, Hampshire

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