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Corruption

My Lords, in March 2006, the Africa all-party parliamentary group, of which I happen to be the vice-chairman, published its report, The Other Side of the Coin: the United Kingdom and Corruption in Africa. The report followed on in part from the United Kingdom Government’s endorsement of recommendations by the Commission for Africa on how western Governments can support Africa's battle against corruption. It followed on from the UK's role in chairing the 2005 G8 summit, which committed G8 countries to take action on corruption. The group’s report urged the Government rigorously to enforce existing laws and sanctions against international bribery and corruption. It urged the Government to bring to Parliament, before the end of 2006, a new anti-corruption Bill, which would address the concerns raised about the 2003 draft Bill by the Joint Parliamentary Committee and the OECD phase 2 review. In June 2006, Downing Street endorsed our report’s conclusions that the Government should take a proactive approach to combating international corruption and support African leaders who were trying to crack down on corruption in their own countries. Downing Street agreed to implement most of the recommendations. The Prime Minister appointed Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, as the ““anti-corruption champion across Whitehall””. The Government's response was welcomed. It was a signal that they were sincerely focused on how Britain could help fight corruption in Africa. However, less than six months later, the decision in December 2006 by the Attorney-General to drop the investigation into the Saudi arms deal ran totally counter to the spirit and letter of the Government's promises in June. The decision to drop the investigation has risked comprehensively undermining Britain's credibility in the battle against corruption in Africa and elsewhere. Dropping the investigation has damaged the painstakingly established confidence won by British exporters in trade, in commerce and in the service industries. Dropping the investigation has attracted puzzlement, followed, frankly, by scorn from the international institutions charged with exposing and eliminating corruption, institutions of which Britain is supposed to be a foremost member. Is it any wonder, for example, that President Mbeki of South Africa accused the Prime Minster at the Davos summit of double standards? He claimed the decision to drop the corruption investigation into BAE Systems’ dealings with Saudi Arabia, but not its relationship with South Africa, left his country tainted. According to the Times of 27 January, President Mbeki said: "““It does puzzle me why a strategic interest with regard to the work of BAE, there should be a strategic interest that would arise in one country and does not arise in other countries””." I understand that the Attorney-General has insisted that Serious Fraud Office investigations into BAE Systems’ activities in Romania, the Czech Republic, Tanzania, and Chile, as well as South Africa, are all to be pursued ““vigorously””. It would be little short of amazing if Britain did not have strategic interests in any of these countries. After all, international terrorism is supposed to be a worldwide phenomenon: it is an international war. It would be puzzling if, in some of these countries, the interests were not so strategic as to be vulnerable to the sort of pressure which has apparently been exerted by Saudi Arabia. When we look at strategic interests, we must think about international terrorists and the traffic in drugs and people, which is happening in many of the countries which appear to be on the hit list. All of this begs the question whether the threat to halt the exchange of intelligence material with Britain emanated from the Saudi Government at all, particularly given the huge risks of cutting of one’s nose to spite one’s face in such an action, as has been eloquently stressed by noble Lords in earlier comments. In reaction to the Serious Fraud Office’s decision to terminate the investigation into the UK-Saudi arms deal, the secretary-general of the OECD stressed the important role of Governments in preserving the integrity of the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention. He made it clear that the political will of members, individually and collectively, to support and enforce the convention was of critical importance, but the Working Group on Bribery had serious concerns as to whether the UK's decision to drop the investigation into the Saudi arms deal was consistent with the convention, to which the UK is a signatory. It is a sad day for any claim that the UK might have had to be leading the fight against corruption in the world when 35 out of 36 of the signatories tothe OECD convention have serious concerns about the UK being committed to complying with its terms. Will the Attorney-General tell us how the Government intend to dispel the perception of double standards when in March they next meet the Working Group on Bribery? In that context, one of the issues that surely should be addressed—it has been mentioned by a number of noble Lords in this debate—is the requirement of the consent of the Attorney-General for the Serious Fraud Office to prosecute a corruption offence. There is no doubt that the UK would advocate that in developing countries, decisions of criminal investigation and prosecution authorities should be wholly independent of government. If the Government had brought forward a corruption Bill by the end of last year, as promised, this issue could have been already resolved. Nevertheless, Ministers will be aware from the comments made by my noble friend Lord Dykes that a draft Bill is readily available. It has had its First Reading in your Lordships' House. Ministers will have noted the Private Member’s Bill published in my name, entitled the Corruption Bill, does not require the consent of Attorney-General for the SFO to prosecute a corruption offence. This Bill began life as a 10-Minute Rule Bill in another place, drafted with the support of Transparency International and presented by Hugh Bayley MP with cross-party support from senior members, led by John Bercow MP and Malcolm Bruce MP. The Government should be concerned with re-establishing the UK's integrity and reputation with the OECD in tackling bribery and corruption. By supporting the Private Members’ Corruption Bill at its Second Reading, due this month, they can, at their meeting in March, demonstrate to the OECD Working Group on Bribery that their concern is genuine and their commitment deep—something that they have so far failed to do.