G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan

G20 Agenda for Action on Combating Corruption, Promoting Market Integrity,
and Supporting a Clean Business Environment

Corruption threatens the integrity of markets, undermines fair competition, distorts resource allocation, destroys public trust, and undermines the rule of law. Corruption is a severe impediment to economic growth, and a significant challenge for developed, emerging and developing countries. As leaders of major trading nations, we have a special responsibility to prevent and tackle corruption, to establish legal and policy frameworks that promote a clean business environment and to continue to assist G20 countries in their capacity building efforts to combat corruption.

Building on our Leaders’ declarations, the G20 commits to supporting a common approach to an effective global anti-corruption regime, the principles of which are enshrined in the provisions of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC); showing collective leadership by taking action in high priority areas that affect our economies; and to directly engaging our private sector stakeholders, who represent the leading share of global businesses, in the development and implementation of innovative and cooperative practices in support of a clean business environment. In that respect, the G20 agreed in Toronto to establish a Working Group to make comprehensive recommendations for consideration by Leaders in Korea in November 2010 on how the G20 could continue to make practical and valuable contributions to international efforts to combat corruption and lead by example

In this regard, we recognize the importance of building upon and complementing existing global mechanism, i.e., the UNCAC, including other international instruments such as the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and regional instruments.

To this end the G20 will lead by example in key areas, including but not limited to, as follows:

1. To ratify or accede, and fully implement the UNCAC by G20 countries as soon as possible, to invite non-G20 states to ratify or accede the UNCAC and to strengthen the individual reviews in line with the current Terms of Reference of the Mechanism for the Review of Implementation of the UNCAC, by ensuring that our individual reviews, under the new implementation review mechanism, are conducted in an effective and thorough manner, and endeavor to enhance the level of transparency and inclusivity.

2. To adopt and enforce laws and other measures against international bribery, such as the criminalization of bribery of foreign public officials, and begin by 2012 the necessary discussions to lead to, on a voluntary basis, more active engagement within the OECD Working Group on Bribery with regards to the standards of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions or to the ratification of the Convention. G20 countries will as well promote the effective implementation of Article 16 on bribery of foreign public officials and public international organizations of the UNCAC.

3. To prevent corrupt officials from accessing the global financial system and from laundering their proceeds of corruption, we call upon the G20 to further strengthen its effort to prevent and combat money laundering, and invite the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to continue to emphasize the anti-corruption agenda as we urged in Pittsburgh and report back to us in France on its work to: continue to identify and engage those jurisdictions with strategic Anti-Money Laundering/Counter-Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies; and update and implement the FATF standards calling for transparency of cross-border wires, beneficial ownership, customer due diligence, and due diligence for “politically exposed persons”.

4. To prevent corrupt officials from being able to travel abroad with impunity, G20 countries will consider a cooperative framework to deny entry and safe haven in our jurisdictions to corrupt officials and those who corrupt them. To that end, G20 experts will examine the possibility to develop common principles for national measures to deny entry of corrupt officials, taking into account existing practices and barriers, and recommend frameworks for bilateral cooperation on the application of this authority.

5. To strengthen international cooperation and to lead by example through our own efforts to tackle corruption and bribery, the G20 will promote the use of the UNCAC, particularly those provisions related to extradition, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery and offer technical assistance where needed, and encourage the signing of bilateral and multilateral treaties on extradition, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery. We will endeavor to address the technical assistance requirements identified by state parties through the implementation of the review mechanism of the UNCAC to further promote implementation of the Convention.

6. To support the recovery of proceeds of corruption stowed abroad, all G20 countries will adopt measures related to, inter alia, preventing and detecting transfers of proceeds of crime; measures for direct recovery of property; mechanisms for recovery of property through international cooperation in asset tracing, freezing and confiscation; measures for special cooperation in voluntary disclosure; and return and dispose of assets as enshrined in Chapter V of the UNCAC. To this end, G20 countries will by the time of the 2011 Summit in France, establish clear and effective channels for mutual legal assistance, and other forms of international cooperation, on corruption and asset recovery, in particular, if they have not done so already, designate an appropriate authority responsible for international mutual legal assistance requests relating to corruption and asset recovery; establish points of contact for law enforcement and international cooperation on corruption cases; and develop specialized expertise for asset recovery in an appropriate agency.

7. To protect whistleblowers, who report in good faith suspected acts of corruption, from discriminatory and retaliatory actions, G20 countries will enact and implement whistleblower protection rules by the end of 2012. To that end, building upon the existing work of organizations such as the OECD and the World Bank, G20 experts will study and summarize existing whistleblower protection legislation and enforcement mechanisms, and propose best practices on whistleblower protection legislation.

8. To strengthen the effective functioning of anti-corruption bodies or enforcement authorities in the prevention and fight against corruption and enable these authorities to carry out their function free from undue influence, G20 countries will take as soon as possible the necessary actions to implement Article 6 (anti-corruption body or bodies) and Article 36 (specialized authorities) of the UNCAC.

9. To promote integrity, transparency, accountability and the prevention of corruption, in the public sector, including in the management of public finances.

The G20 will exercise its voice in the governance of international organizations to encourage that they operate with transparency, high ethical standards, effective internal safeguards and the highest standard of integrity. To that end, we call for continued dialogue among international organizations and national authorities on defining good practices and ways forward on this objective.

• strengthen corporate efforts, by extending an invitation to the private sector to meet during the French Presidency, to examine best practices and other forms of business engagement in combating corruption and to consider how G20 corporations could share their on-going efforts.

• combat corruption in specific sectors, by working with industry and civil society to identify vulnerabilities in commercial transactions in a subset of specific sectors, with the goal of recommending multi-stakeholder initiatives for improvements in propriety, integrity and transparency by the end of 2011, for consideration by Leaders and implementation thereafter as appropriate.

Leading by example, the G20 holds itself accountable for its commitments. Beyond our participation in existing mechanisms of peer review for anti-corruption standards, reports, agreed within the working group, on individual and collective progresses made by G20 countries in the implementation of the Action Plan will be submitted on an annual basis to the G20 Leaders for the duration of this Action Plan.

In this context, the Anti-Corruption Working Group will prepare a first monitoring report for the Leaders at next Summit in France.

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and the G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto.

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This page was last updated August 15, 2024 .

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