By Frank Vogl

Afghan reconstruction will be impossible without major efforts to ensure public procurement transparency. Initiatives to save the world's forests will be meaningless unless bribery by loggers is halted. The delegates to this week's New York meetings know this, but they refuse to put the issue of corruption at center stage on their agendas.

Solutions to the crises of democracy from A to Z from Argentina to Zimbabwe - will be illusory unless corruption is attacked. Attacking terrorism demands curbing the ability of the terrorist leaders to bribe public officials in dozens of countries and launder money through the global financial system. Nevertheless, like hors d'oeuvres at a party, corruption will be much in evidence in corridor chats at PrepCom II and the World Economic Forum, but it will not feature as a main course in the official plenary debates. It should.

The silence on this issue implies that the conference organizers believe that tackling corruption is someone else's business. Well, it is not.

Transparency International (TI) and a growing number of influential organisations, from UNDP to the World Bank, have been making the fight against corruption an international priority. But the organisers of many official conferences still shy away from the topic. Perhaps they fear that putting bribery center stage may offend delegates from the private sector and from the governments of developing countries. These organizers need to get real and recognize today's crisis.

At the broadest level the survival of democracy is at stake in a rising number of nations. For example, debt-defaulting Argentina is in political chaos. Street riots and broad public cynicism concerning all politicians is undermining the fabric of a fragile democracy. Investigations into alleged bribe-taking by former President Menem are adding fuel to the fire in a land where politicians and civil servants are widely seen as masters of the art of abusing their public offices for private gain.

Then there is Zimbabwe where President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party are attacking the judiciary, the press and the political opposition. Says Kenyan John Githongo, a member of the Board of Directors of Transparency International and its representative to the World Economic Forum, "the current legislative agenda in Zimbabwe threatens the freedom of opposition parties to campaign. Without the right to assembly and access to the media, a fair and free election cannot be guaranteed." British and U.S. authorities are investigating allegations that President Mugabe and his cronies have looted the national coffers of tens of millions of dollars and laundered the cash through the international banking system. A country that was once seen as having the potential to be a model of good governance is now sinking fast in a swamp of corruption.

If the fate of democracy is too rich for the appetites of the delegates at this week's New York conferences, then at a minimum they should be serving up a lean diet of environment and corruption meals. Let's hope PrepCom II, for example, recognizes the linkage and makes it a key theme.

Most countries have decent environmental laws and most large corporations have solid pro-environmental business principles. However, the environment in scores of countries is getting raped. Pervasive bribery is making a mockery of green laws in dozens of countries. For example, uncontrolled deforestation is wreaking environmental and economic havoc around the world, and corruption plays a key role in this destruction.

In Indonesia, says Nigel Sizer of the Nature Conservancy, an estimated 50 to 80 percent of forestry activities in Indonesia are illegal. Sources of illegality included logging in protected areas, improper granting of licensing and illegal export practices, all of which were enabled by corruption. He argued that only intervention from the President herself would make a change. He saw systematic over-regulation as the major cause of corruption; an estimated 1,599 forms must be filed for a major logging operation.

Sizer cited the case of the park of Lore Lindu where there are 200 small sawmills processing 100 percent illegal input. Of the 40 cases submitted for prosecution in this area none have gone forward as the law enforcement officers participated in corrupt practices and lacked resources for proper case preparation. Many similarly awful examples from other countries were highlighted here at a World Bank TI conference to establish a Forest Integrity Network (FIN) aimed at tackling deforestation and corruption. TI Chairman Peter Eigen noted that: "So far civil society has been let down by governments and their international organizations. Failed governance and widespread corruption have resulted in the continued destruction of forest resources."

A sobering final thought: the majority of the countries in the world ranked in the TI Corruption Perceptions Index score below five out of a maximum possible clean score of 10. In other words, corruption is seen to be very widespread in most countries. Nevertheless, it remains a side issue in the official debates when the high and mighty congregate at the kinds of conferences that New York is hosting this week.

Frank Vogl is president of Vogl Communications, Inc in Washington DC and a Vice Chairman of Transparency International, the anti-corruption NGO.

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