India to focus on strengthening international cooperation on anti-corruption issues: Singh

“Taking inspiration from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of developing an administrative ecosystem for a developed India, which has zero tolerance for corruption, India’s Presidency will aim to focus on pragmatic action-oriented steps in addressing the wider implications of corruption to strengthen international cooperation on anti-corruption matters and deepen the G-20 commitment towards countering the corrupt actors and corruption,” said Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh while addressing the delegates at the inaugural session of the three days first Anti-Corruption Working Group Meeting held in Gurugram on Wednesday.

“As our Prime Minister has stated at numerous occasions – “A safe and secure world is our shared responsibility. When the forces of good cooperate, the forces of crime cannot operate,” India’s G-20 presidency will focus on providing an effective, efficient, and responsive mechanism on asset recovery and information sharing between the G-20 countries,” said Jitendra Singh.

The Minister said that economic offences have been a problem faced by many, especially when the offenders flee from the jurisdiction of the country. India has put in place a specialized legislation in this regard, in the form of Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, the term wherein ‘fugitive economic offender’ (FEO) is defined as an individual against whom a warrant of arrest in relation to Scheduled Offence has been issued by any court in India and who has left the country so as to avoid criminal prosecution; or the FEO abroad refuses to return to face criminal prosecution.

For better coordination, streamlining of the judicial processes and timely disposal of cases, there is a requirement for multilateral action rather than bilateral coordination, which proves to be more complex and presents obstacles in making progress on cases related to FEOs and recovery of related assets, said the Union Minister.

The minister said that it was found that the offenders fled the country before or after detection of offence and as a result, their passports were revoked with a view to restrict their movement. Enforcement Directorate has transferred assets worth about $180 billion to public sector banks that suffered losses to the tune of around $272 billion due to frauds committed allegedly by high-net-worth individuals, shared Jitendra Singh. Corruption is a complex social, political, and economic challenge affecting all countries.