The State Department has always occupied an interesting position regarding foreign corruption.
As retold in “The Story of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” during the mid-1970s when Congress held hearings on the so-called foreign corporate payments problem, the State Department condemned the payments, but opposed unilateral U.S. legislation to address the problem. Moreover, Congressional leaders were also troubled that the State Department was perhaps a participant in, or at least enabler of, the very problem Congress was seeking to address.
The following exchange between Senator Jesse Helms and Lockheed’s Chairman Haughton during a Senate hearing highlights this issue:
“Senator Helms. . . . Do you feel that these bribes or whatever name may be applied to them came as any surprise to the Government of the United States, specifically of the State Department? . . . .
Mr. Haughton … I don’t believe they came as any surprise to the State Department or to other branches of the U.S. Government.”
Senator Helms directed the following statement to Deputy Secretary of State Ingersoll during a Joint Committee hearing:
“I certainly don’t want to even have the appearance of badgering you, and I don’t want to belabor the point, but I am somewhat mystified in the light of all the reports that have come to me, sir, that apparently at the State Department during all of these years when these things were alleged to have occurred, that there was a complete “hear no evil and see no evil.” Now, just tell me this one more time. Nobody at the State Department ever dreamed anything of this sort was going on at any time?”
During a Senate hearing, Senator Helms further noted that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger declined opportunities to testify regarding the foreign corporate payment problem and Senator Helms offered the following conclusion:
“I’m not all that certain that our Government has leveled with the American people about the Government’s own involvement with respect to these activities.”
On the Senate floor, Senator Church made the following statement regarding the State Department’s perceived role in the problem:
“In all the months that we have investigated the practices of multi-million-dollar bribes and payoffs all over the world, we have yet to find any evidence of State Department concern or State Department initiative taken at any time to deal with the problem. When these bribes were finally exposed, they delayed for months even taking token action. So I really do not think the State Department wants any legislation in this field. I believe their attitude fairly could be characterized as one of indifference or perhaps benign neglect.”
Fast forward to the present day and the State Department (at least publicly) talks a different game when it comes to foreign corruption.
In this recent annual report to Congress (required pursuant to a section in the Advance Democratic Values, Address Nondemocratic Countries, and Enhance Democracy Act of 2007), the State Department highlighted its priorities “for the promotion of democracy and the protection of human rights for each nondemocratic country and democratic transition country.”
Under the heading “Fighting Corruption and Supporting Good Governance,” the report states:
“Recognizing corruption’s threat to national security and its ability to corrode democracy, President Biden has elevated the fight against corruption to a core U.S. national security interest, and in December 2021 the United States released the first-ever U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. The strategy outlines a whole-of-government approach, with a particular emphasis on better understanding and responding to the threat’s transnational dimensions.
In support of the strategy, the administration announced a suite of new programs as part of the PIDR (Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal), including initiatives to protect anticorruption activists and journalists, build the capacity of partner governments, close loopholes in the financial and regulatory system that corrupt actors exploit, develop innovative approaches with new partners, and expand flexibility to respond to political openings.
Departments and agencies are also evolving how they resource and organize their programs and workforce to tackle international corruption. In December 2021 the Secretary of State established a new position of Global Anticorruption Coordinator, who will promote the integration of anticorruption into all facets of foreign policy, increase capacity at the Department of State to engage effectively, and strengthen partnerships. USAID’s Anticorruption Task Force, established in June 2021, is taking concrete actions to elevate, strengthen, and integrate anticorruption work at USAID, and partner more closely with other parts of the U.S. government and the development community.
The U.S. government helps countries implement anticorruption measures consistent with agreed-upon international standards, such as the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). U.S.-funded programs aim to strengthen the transparency, accountability, and integrity of public institutions and processes across all branches of government and at national and local levels. Programs are aimed at bolstering the effectiveness of institutions that oversee public spending and investment, improving public financial management systems, strengthening asset declaration protocols, enhancing anticorruption agencies and legislative oversight commissions, and supporting specialized anticorruption courts. Programs also strengthen the integrity of justice-sector institutions and their capacity to hold the corrupt criminally accountable.
U.S-funded programs support transparency and accountability through assistance to NGOs and media organizations that expose corruption and advocate reform. Programs can include supporting broad coalitions to reveal cases of corruption; aligning policy goals between corruption, governance, and human rights issues; and advocating for substantive public policy reforms to strengthen governmental controls and accountability. Additionally, USAID programs support the implementation of country-level commitments under reform platforms such as UNCAC, the Open Government Partnership, and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Programs include building the capabilities of NGOs, universities, media, private sector associations, and watchdog organizations to demand greater governmental openness.
U.S.-funded programs help citizens monitor public spending and report on bribery by using new communications technologies, as well as supporting public access to information through open data portals and the implementation of freedom-of-information laws and practices. The U.S. government uses e-governance programming in its anticorruption efforts. U.S. programs provide fiscal and budget management support for community participation in policy discussions and through associations of governors and mayors.
The Department of State supports the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium (GACC), a multi-partner initiative and PIDR effort which supports coordination, communication, and data-sharing between investigative journalists and anticorruption advocates. The GACC helps uncover large-scale money laundering and pay-for-influence schemes. The Department also launched an anticorruption Rapid Response Fund, in cooperation with the Department of Justice.
The Department of State supports the Open Governance Program to promote transparency, integrity, and accountability, and to integrate citizen views into decision making. The projects facilitate government dialogue with CSOs through coordinating, prioritizing areas of interest, and developing strategies for government consultation. In capitalizing on the use of new technologies, the department assists governments in developing and improving their use of innovations for transparency, accountability, and anticorruption, e-government, and new media tools. The Department also supports parliaments and CSOs using a bottom-up approach and focusing on building broad-based coalitions – including elected decisionmakers, civil servants, and a wide range of civil society activists – to exert influence and maintain pressure to engage and stay engaged when governments change.
In 2021, the Department of State launched the Global Anticorruption Champions Award to recognize and bolster the work and security of leading reformers and activists around the world.”
