Few and Far: The Hard Facts on Stolen Asset Recovery

Abstract

The return of the proceeds of corruption - asset recovery can have a significant development impact. Development agencies and other bodies committed to improving development effectiveness should be interested in the asset recovery agenda, in view of recognition that corruption undermines development efforts and international commitments to fight it and recover the proceeds. Within this new framework, delegates committed themselves to fight corruption and to undertake efforts to identify, trace, freeze, and return the proceeds of corruption. This report measures the progress of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries in meeting commitments to trace, freeze, seize, and recover the proceeds of corruption. It covers the period from January 2010 to June 2012 and follows an initial report measuring progress between 2006 and 2009, tracking anti-corruption and asset recovery commitments: a progress report and recommendations for action. The report is primarily intended to support the anticorruption and asset recovery efforts of developed and developing jurisdictions, with a particular focus on actions for development agencies. Civil society organizations engaged in governance and development issues may wish to use the findings and recommendations in their reports and advocacy efforts as well. This report is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides some general observations on the data available; chapter three summarizes the main findings on asset recovery cases; chapters four, five, and six discusses the progress that countries have made in developing the necessary policy, legal, and institutional frameworks. Chapter seven summarizes the role of developing countries in recovering the proceeds of corruption; chapter eight reports on possible areas for the involvement of development agencies; and chapter nine sets out the main conclusions of the report.