Introduction
Last week’s column reported on the Third Financing for Development Conference and the positions it took in regard to the recovery of stolen public assets. In that column I reported more or less verbatim what was agreed on at the conference. This week I will report on two related or complementary forms of corruption, which were addressed and directly linked to stolen public assets. These are taxation and money laundering. Similar to last week I shall report more or less verbatim so that readers might get a clearer insight into the positions taken by the conference.
Taxation and corruption
The Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) was very clear, it pledged to 1) reduce opportunities for tax avoidance; 2) insert anti-abuse clauses in all tax treaties; 3) enhance disclosure practices and transparency in source and destination countries; 4) ensure transparency in all financial transactions between governments and companies to relevant tax authorities; and 5) make sure that all companies, including multinationals, pay taxes to the governments of countries where economic activity occurs and value is created, in accordance with national and international laws and policies.
Furthermore, it explicitly recognized that small countries like Guyana, which rely significantly on natural resource exports, face particular challenges. Therefore it agreed to vigorously promote investment in value addition through processing of