By Dapo Akinrefon

WORLD leaders, yesterday in London, pledged to make corruption a top priority just as they plan to take necessary actions to prevent corruption from festering in governments, institutions, businesses and communities.

This was contained in a communiqué setting out a common approach to tackling corruption, as agreed by participating countries and, where appropriate, international organisations.

It was, however, alleged that the communiqué was issued before the commencement of the anti-corruption summit.

While the leaders identified corruption as the bane of “so many of the world’s problems”, they vowed to expose the menace across board.

President Buhari arrives for the Anti Corruption Summit and Participates at the Leader’s Breakfast at the Lanca

“We see tackling corruption as a top priority, at home and abroad. We will take action to prevent corruption and to ensure it does not fester in our government institutions, businesses and communities. We will seek to uncover corruption wherever it exists, and to pursue and punish those who perpetrate, facilitate or are complicit in it. We commit to make it easier for people to report suspected acts of corruption, and to support communities that have suffered from it.”

On plans to tackle graft, the leaders said; “We will fully implement the Financial Action Task Force, FATF, Recommendations on Transparency and Beneficial Ownership of Legal Persons and Arrangements.

‘’We will ensure accurate and timely basic and beneficial ownership information (including legal ownership information) is collected, available and fully accessible to those who have a legitimate need for it, including to help prevent abuse.”

The communiqué also stated that “We will take steps to eliminate loopholes that allow corruption to thrive through the misuse of these entities, and work, in accordance with national law, to ensure a level playing field between foreign and domestic companies in respect of requirements to provide beneficial ownership information.

‘’We will work towards ensuring the effective exchange of beneficial ownership information, in line with applicable data protection laws and rules, both domestically and internationally, and between authorities, including tax authorities, asset recovery offices, and financial intelligence units (FIUs), law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies.”