Washington - The World Bank has launched a new program to help developing countries recover assets stolen by their former leaders.
"We at the World Bank, in partnership with the international community, want to help developing countries recover assets that have been stolen by former corrupt leaders," said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in a press release published on the institution's website on Monday, 16th April 2007.
The Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative is the result of the discussion of the World Bank's delegations and international institutions within the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings held in Washington.
"This is a moral obligation. Recovering even a portion of the stolen assets will help fund development and social programs, or badly-needed infrastructure," Wolfowitz added.
The World Bank estimates that total capital outflows from the acts of criminality, corruption, and tax evasion has reached USD1-1.6 trillion a year. Half of this value comes from developing countries and countries undergoing economic transition, and bribes to public officials in these countries is estimated about $20-40 billion.
"The challenge is immense given the complexity and the international dimension of the problem," said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Nigeria and Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Ngozi played an important role in her country's recovery of $500 million of Nigeria's assets stolen by the dictator Sani Abacha. "We will be successful only if solid partnerships are formed with developing and developed countries, and other bilateral and multilateral agencies." she added.
The Bank is pursuing the StAR Initiative jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
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