Corrosive…
…catastrophic…
People feel there is no hope
…and often covert
It’s like bloody Monopoly money
Corruption costs the world nearly $3trn every year…
…and blights the lives of hundreds of millions
But in some parts of the world…
…there’s a renewed drive to disrupt corruption
We need to act with urgency and purpose…
…to restore our state-owned enterprises
From bold moves at the top...
We’ve got to make sure that there’s strong, committed, ethical leadership
…to new technologies shining a light on the problem
Now in Ukraine we have the most transparent corruption in the world
Communities, companies and countries are learning lessons…
…in how to root out corruption…
Our country changed to one of the obvious technological leaders
…hold the guilty to account…
This was one of the largest cases the SFO had worked on
…and challenge the culture that allows it to continue
Do we accept the way it is or do you stand up for something?
This is a notoriously violent and lawless district of Cape Town in South Africa
Here in Cape Flats there were almost 1,000 murders…
…in the first six months of 2019
And police corruption is helping to fuel this violence
Alcardo was a year old here so we decided to give him a little party
He grew up in the community as a teenager
He got married, had one kid…
…and then in 2015 he was murdered
Avril Andrews says both she and the police know the identity of the killer…
…who shot her son, Alcardo, dead
But Avril believes police corruption has stalled her search for justice
Corruption affects our community very much
I’ve experienced it myself in police…
…even with the recent case
One of the guys tried to intimidate my family
Our community is going down, people feel there is no hope
Since her son’s death Avril has spoken out publicly at great personal risk…
…against the corrupt forces undermining the rule of law in her community
Alcardo, this is the fourth year that we are seeking justice
There are certain things that you’ve discussed with me…
…that you would have loved to do in the community…
…so I’m doing it for you
I believe we’re going to get justice
In South Africa the police are known to supply weapons to gangs
In 2016 a former police colonel pleaded guilty to illegally selling 2,400 guns
Most ended up in Cape Flats…
…where nearly 2,500 shootings have been linked to illegal guns since 2010…
…including 261 child victims
Within the South African police, anti-corruption campaigners…
…have documented over 475 reports of bribery…
…and over 300 reports of abuse of power
Avril has founded a support group for bereaved mothers…
…campaigning for justice in the face of this corruption
Thank you ladies for being here
In the past six years 229 dockets, records of court proceedings…
…are reported to have gone missing in Western Cape
Lesley Wyngaard, whose son was also murdered in Cape Flats…
…says the files related to his case…
…mysteriously disappeared from the court house
The prosecutor told me, “I had the file”…
…“I had the file”, so somebody sneaked that file out of his office…
…and made it disappear
In South Africa the rot of corruption runs deep
This secretly recorded footage captured a successful businessman…
…Gavin Watson, seemingly organising to pay bribes to government officials
One, two, three, four, five…
…six, seven, eight, nine, ten, brother
Watson, who died in 2019…
…was a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle…
…and had close links to the ANC party…
…which has been in power for 25 years
That’s bloody monopoly money
Yes
During the nine-year presidency of Jacob Zuma…
…this corruption captured the state…
…right up to the very top
He and his cronies plundered state-owned enterprises
In Zuma’s second term alone, about $100bn was stolen…
…just short of a third of South Africa’s GDP
But South Africans demanded change and in 2019 they elected…
…a new president on an explicit platform to crack down on corruption
Cyril Ramaphosa has set out to provide the clean leadership…
…that is vital in any fight against corruption
We need to act with urgency…
…and purpose to restore our state-owned enterprises
Those who monitored the excesses of the Zuma years…
…are hopeful his successor will drive change from the top
Corruption Watch has been in existence for eight years now…
…mostly during the Zuma administration…
…and working with the two administrations is like night and day
We now encounter an administration that is…
…much more willing to work with the likes of us
Doesn’t mean that we don’t have to be vigilant…
…in holding them to account…
…but there’s definitely a new spirit afoot in the country…
…although still huge problems to overcome
The new leadership has already begun to make its mark
I think it’s achieved a fair amount in the period since…
…Ramaphosa was installed as president
Key Zuma acolytes who were leaders of critical institutions have been fired…
…others put in their place
State-owned enterprise boards have been revamped
But fighting corruption on this scale…
…demands more than just political leadership
Commission chairperson Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo…
…announced yesterday key appointments to his commission
In 2018 Judge Raymond Zondo was appointed…
…to head an unprecedented commission of inquiry…
…into how corruption captured the state under the Zuma administration
We want to have an idea about the levels of corruption in the country…
…and what forms corruption takes, and so that we can make…
…recommendations as to what the country should do to try…
…and bring it up to the absolute minimum levels of corruption
The commission has heard thousands of hours of testimony…
…from over a hundred witnesses to fraud and corruption
Zondo’s warts-and-all approach to exposing the problem…
…has been compared to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission…
…after the apartheid era
Above all it educates the public...
...it places before the public...
...exactly what happened…
…during the Zuma administration, which as you can imagine…
…was subject to a lot of false news and factual manipulation
With the truth now emerging, there’s also a fresh push for justice
A new chief public prosecutor…
…has promised to clean up the National Prosecuting Authority…
…another institution infiltrated by Zuma’s cronies
Shamila Batohi is a respected former lawyer…
…from the International Criminal Court in The Hague…
…and President Ramaphosa’s most significant appointment to date
People know that it’s not business as usual
If we want to be serious about addressing corruptions…
…we’ve got to make sure that there is strong, committed, ethical leadership
In Shamila Batohi’s new job that means getting serious about enforcement
We’ve got to look at prosecuting the right people
That is where I think in the past the prosecution, the NPA, lost credibility
They failed to demonstrate that they were serious about tackling corruption
And that is not just within the NPA…
…but certainly within the broader law-enforcement space
This kind of leadership may start to convince South Africans…
…that rhetoric has finally turned into action
So I know that the people of South Africa are impatient, understandably so
They have every reason
What is the greatest deterrent to crime?
The certainty that there will be an investigation…
…that there will be a prosecution and there will be consequences
And the sad reality is that in South Africa…
…that wasn’t the case in the recent past
While clean leadership is vital to tackling corruption…
…so is having the ability to spot it
In Ukraine, another country with a deep history of corruption…
…the struggle for greater financial transparency has been hard fought
In 2014 a violent revolution deposed…
…its notoriously corrupt president, Viktor Yanukovych
During four years in office…
…he and his associates stole an estimated $40bn from the public purse
Activists who helped to depose Yanukovych have since traced the flows…
…of this stolen money and helped to reveal the extent of his corruption
One of them is Max Nefyodov, now head of the customs service in Ukraine
So we are in Mezhyhirya, the infamous mansion…
…that belonged to ex-president Yanukovych
Yanukovych earned an official salary of about $100,000 a year…
…but he used the proceeds of corruption to build this lavish palace…
…on 345 acres of land outside the capital Kyev
This is a huge territory with big houses…
…and golf courses and boxing rings and restaurants…
…and his personal zoo with ostriches
It’s a nice one
He has nice eyebrows
Kickbacks and bribes from government contracts…
…were one of the principal ways of stealing money from the state
$2bn a year used to be lost through government officials…
…paying over the odds for anything from building materials to medicines
One of the reasons why those in power could afford little luxuries…
…such as a gold-panelled chapel…
…limited edition John Lennon Steinway piano…
…and even toilet brushes encrusted with Swarovski crystals
Everything here was built, obviously using money siphoned from the budget
So basically all like a museum to the corruption
This kleptocracy was catastrophic for Ukrainians…
…denying them affordable health care and good public services
After Yanukovych was deposed, Max and other activists set about…
…changing the system that had allowed corruption to flourish
They determined that one thing in particular…
…would be vital to transform Ukraine…
…transparency
Specifically the ability to trace and track the flows of public money
The beauty of the system is that this is just sort of like a website…
…with explanation and open data
This online system made the bidding process…
…for government contracts more transparent
Now whenever government officials want to buy something…
…they must put out a tender on a single platform accessible to anyone
These are the ongoing tenders for the Kiev region
There are just over 10,000 ongoing tenders right now, worth €1.8bn
And these are the statuses of procedures…
…and so on and so on
Roughly a million tenders go through the system each year
And the system must openly log every bid for every government contract
As a combination of better usability…
…compulsory auctions and different mechanisms to fight collusion…
…and price fixing and different types of fraud…
…we’re able to save about 7-8% of the value of each tender
It’s estimated that the system, known as ProZorro…
…has contributed to reducing the cost of corruption to Ukraine…
…by $6bn per year since 2014
And the system is now being used in other countries
I’m actually proud that our country changed its position…
…from being one of the worst places for public procurement in the world…
…to one of the obvious technological leaders and pioneers in this area
But whilst greater transparency has helped Ukraine…
…to discover and expose corruption…
…the country still lacks a vital tool to tackle it…
…effective enforcement authorities to hold the guilty parties accountable
More than 11m documents—they reveal what’s alleged…
…to be a global network of tax avoidance, evasion and money laundering
When the most ruthless of the Mexican drug cartels…
…wanted to hide their money they went to HSBC
In today’s globalised world…
…enforcement agencies in wealthy countries face a challenge…
…to root out corruption and deliver justice
And they’re increasingly deploying new technologies to help
So the investigation covered three decades across three business sectors…
…and seven different jurisdictions
This was one of the largest cases the SFO had worked on
In 2013 the Serious Fraud Office in London began investigating…
…systematic bribery by one of Britain’s most prestigious companies…
…Rolls-Royce
Five years into their investigation…
…the SFO had gathered 30m documents and needed to determine…
…which could be used to prosecute the firm
We started reviewing it using the old method…
…which was just to use keyword searches and then instruct…
…independent barristers to review that material
And we needed to find a way to speed that up
Advances in technology meant that AI and machine-learning…
…based products became available that could help with this work
In the first use of AI in a British criminal case…
…the system was able to search documents 2,000 times faster…
…than human lawyers and more reliably
And what this tool does is looks for patterns within the documents…
…patterns in communication and what we were able to find was…
…the results were more consistent
And that’s not to say that the lawyers were making mistakes…
…but the reality is, if you have five different lawyers…
…they will make different determinations
The SFO, long seen as impotent, tonight has scored a significant success
In court Rolls-Royce admitted that in six countries across the world…
…middlemen had paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes…
…in order to secure contracts for the company
Aware that the punishment faced by Rolls-Royce…
…could act as a useful deterrent to other companies…
…the British authorities ordered the firm to pay a record fine…
…of around $650m, in return for avoiding prosecution
Critics say that individual prosecutions, rather than just a huge fine…
…would act as a clearer deterrent to future wrongdoing
But the Serious Fraud Office insists that money talks
A settlement of this size…
…will absolutely act as a disincentive against corruption…
…particularly in a case like Rolls Royce…
…where not only does it have that financial impact immediately…
…but there are certain conditions which they must meet…
…in terms of their systems and processes and how they have to operate…
…in the future to demonstrate to the court that they are not continuing…
…with this sort of behaviour
Rolls-Royce says it has made a raft of changes…
…strengthening its compliance and oversight procedures…
…and introducing new technology
We now have an app, a code-of-conduct app, rather than a written document
That means that everybody on their iPhone has access to support…
…both in respect of the policies and the processes…
…but know who to speak to if they need help
The company insists its actions have brought about a culture change…
…which will make corrupt behaviour less likely in the future
I can tell you that the exercise we have been through…
…at Rolls-Royce has not been box ticking
We provided super co-operation in respect of fixing the past issues
We have taken incredibly seriously and frankly…
…spent a lot of money dealing with both the past…
…and trying to set up the framework for the future
But none of this would have happened had Rolls-Royce not been caught
All too often companies’ efforts to educate staff about avoiding fraud…
…are motivated by the demands of compliance regulations…
…rather than a genuine desire to change the culture around corruption
Doing that requires a new attitude to the men and women…
…who lift the lid on corruption in the first place
Cynthia Stimpel was group treasurer at South African Airways…
…a state-owned enterprise
In 2016 she discovered that the company was apparently…
…planning to avoid due-diligence procedures
Cynthia was asked to raise money to finance debts by paying…
…a new company, substantially over the amount charged by banks
I then said, well, I’m not prepared to sign it
I’m not prepared to approve it
We should go back to the banks, let’s get a different costing…
…and I’m sure we will save money
But it went ahead and it was approved by board…
…despite my refusal to sign the documents
Cynthia blew the whistle on this highly irregular transaction
Well at the time was firstly a determination that I need to do this…
…and that it’s the right thing to do for my own personal conscience…
…for my personal values, for my own moral compass
My name is Cynthia Agnes Soraya Stimpel
When she testified at the Zondo Commission into corruption…
…Cynthia hit the public eye…
…as her actions had helped save taxpayers $17m
But South African Airways wasn’t so grateful
Cynthia lost her job
She has since joined forces with other whistleblowers…
…who have suffered similar fates
Their message is clear…
…if companies are serious about installing an ethical culture…
…they need to reward whistleblowers, not punish them
Glad to see you again
Most of the people here held senior positions at major companies
All alleged fraud at those companies
Yet all ended up losing their jobs for blowing the whistle
I thought I would be protected because I followed everything to the tee
But what?
The first thing that happened…
…I was called in and immediately suspended…
…without even being able to speak
I wasn’t able to give my side of the story
I still haven’t had a hearing
The end result is that I’ve lost my job
Without whistleblowers we wouldn’t have the Zondo Commission
Everybody asks, but why are people not speaking up?
But if you look at all the people that’s gone to all these commissions…
…all of them have lost their jobs
So what does that teach you?
Don’t speak up because you will lose your job
The culture in companies may be slow to change…
…but the increased visibility of whistleblowers is helping drive…
…a broader shift in South African’s collective will to challenge corruption
Do we accept the way it is?
Or do you stand up for something?
I think the people around this table decided to stand up for something
We’ve got some of the key changemakers…
…that the globe has ever seen in our history
We have that fortitude, the resilience
We want a better South Africa
This determination of the few to make a stand…
…is a vital step to tackling corruption
But it doesn’t happen in a vacuum
Seeing corrupt individuals or companies held to account…
…may encourage others to think twice
New tools make it easier to expose wrongdoing in the first place
And together, they feed the momentum for change…
…from the public, from business and from those in power…
…that’s the key to disrupting corruption