The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah at the third session of the Conference of the State Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption at the Doha Sheraton Hotel yesterday.

DOHA: The five-day UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) that got off here yesterday is expected to come out with a foolproof review mechanism in line with the Global anti-corruption treaty.

The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani inaugurated the Convention. The opening ceremony was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, ministers and Heads of the Diplomatic Missions accredited to Qatar and guests.

Talking to the media on the sidelines of the opening day of the meet here yesterday, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the significance of the Doha meet is the introduction of this monitoring mechanism in the 141-member countries.

“This meet will be remembered in the history of UN in developing practical level implementation of agreement”, he said.

At the moment, corruption is based on perception. There is no way knowing how successfully countries are combating corruption. A yardstick is inevitable to measure progress in checking corruption, he added.

Maria Costa said globalisation is one of the major reasons for the transnational organised crime. However, it would be inaccurate to attribute corruption to the reason for the global financial crisis, which triggered an economic crisis that turned into social crisis. Yet, corruption did play a part in undermining the global system-the crisis was the result of corrupted minds, as much as of corrupted practices”, he said.

Earlier, delivering the opening address at the meet, Maria Costa said Globalisation produced three major developments in the world. First, it spurred global economic growth, by facilitating the free movement of goods and services and fostered the birth of new economic giants. Secondly, it promoted the world-wide boom of stock markets and the integration of the banking industry. It made lots of people, the rich on paper, feel good. But, finally, globalisation allowed transnational organised crime to become macro economic in size and global in its reach—a threat that only now we have started to appreciate, and counteract, he said.

Maria Costa said that these developments have now become intertwined, into a knot of problems hard to disentangle. “After major systemic failures, financial markets have been rescued by imposing massive debts upon future generations, and at the expense of other priorities, including development assistance. International mafias, cash-rich at a time of large-scale illiquidity, have found a unique opportunity to penetrate both the financial and the real economy, worldwide:, he said

He called on the Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption, to recognise that there is a sliver lining to the current crisis-an unprecedented chance to rebase the world system, on the rules of integrity enshrined in the Convention. “Now is the chance to use the treaty as a blueprint for restoring confidence in markets, business, and governments”, he said. Maria Costa wanted the participating members to use the Doha meet to show that corruption is ‘preventable’.

He noted that many countries still lack specialised, impendent, and well-funded anti-corruption authorities. Too often, there is much interference. Even in developed democracies there is insufficient transparency in the hiring of public officials and the funding of political parties. He also called on the countries to tighten the tendering and procurement rules.” This is the area of greatest abuse, where the interests of the private and public sectors coincide, and big money is at stake. And we have to am the revolving door of civil servants who take on private sector jobs related to their previous functions”, he said.