India urged to ratify international anti-graft accord

New Delhi, Nov 4 : The government of India should ratify the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) if it is serious about recovering the nation's wealth stashed in foreign banks, global anti-graft watchdog Transparency International, said Wednesday.

"It is absolutely imperative to sign the UNCAC to get our money stashed in foreign banks," Admiral (retd) R.H. Tahiliani, who heads the Tranparency International India chapter, told reporters here, ahead of a meeting in Doha where signatory countries of the convention will review the implementation of the UNCAC.

The UNCAC was adopted by the UN in 2003. India, which figures at 85th place in the list of the corrupt countries, signed the act in 2003 but has not ratified it.

The UNCAC establishes asset recovery as a 'fundamental principle' of the convention. The provisions on asset recovery lay a framework, in both civil and criminal law, for tracing, freezing, forfeiting and returning funds obtained through corrupt activities. The requesting state will in most cases receive the recovered funds as long as it can prove ownership.

After ratifying the act, a country becomes legally bound to promote the prevention, criminalisation and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery, technical assistance and information exchange, and mechanisms for implementation of the UNCAC.

The agreement on asset recovery in the UNCAC is one of the reasons why many countries have signed it, Tahiliani said, adding "some vested interests in the government don't want the country to ratify the act."

Anupama Jha, the executive director of the Transparency International, India, said Switzeland, Bahamas and Jamaica have already ratified the UN Act and if India ratifies it "we can use it as an instrument to get the details about Indian money stashed there".

It is estimated that Indian black money worth over $137 billion has been stashed away in tax havens abroad.

"Not ratifying the act doesn't show us in a good light. The government should ratify it to demonstrate its commitment to effectively fight corruption and get back the Indian tax payers' wealth hidden abroad," Jha told IANS.

Out of the 140 countries that have signed the UNCAC, 120 have ratified it.