Transnational corruption and its victims

Conférence de Cid BUTUYAN, Directeur et Responsable de l'éthique à l'UNICEF, Nations Unies (New York, USA).

This talk will explore gaps in current anticorruption thinking and approaches, using reflections from the speaker's two decades of work across the globe and with international organizations. He argues that there is a "missing victim" problem in the anti-corruption field. While it is often said that "corruption kills," anticorruption crusaders often ignore the victims of corruption and focus solely on the perpetrators. He will share examples showing that corruption hurts the poor the most. From various county settings, corruption introduces distortions into various sectors of the economy in a way that is damaging development. Even if corruption is to be viewed as a market response to government failures, it is still a highly regressive and inequitable means of addressing such failures. Corruption ultimately is most vicious on the poor. There is also deep ambiguity that persists about the harms caused by corruption and what remedies are appropriate. Substantive gaps and procedural missteps plague existing approaches to anti-corruption because the voice and role of victims have been both underappreciated and undertheorized.  The talk will provide students with a brief overview of the trends in the burgeoning field of transnational anti-corruption enforcement; transparency regimes and independent oversight; and various other accountability features in multilateral institutions and international settings. It aims to introduce students to significant substantive and practical issues in international organization and transnational work and the fundamentals required for a future career in this field.

El Cid (Cid) BUTUYAN is Director and Chief Ethics Officer at UNICEF in the United Nations in New York. (Note: He is speaking in his personal capacity). He currently teaches an international course at Sciences Po-Paris and was a faculty member at Harvard Law School. In 2007, he was named Harvard Wasserstein Fellow in recognition of "outstanding contribution and dedication to public interest law." Prior to joining the United Nations, Cid spent over fifteen years at the World Bank in Washington, DC where he led global anticorruption and legal reform efforts. He also worked as the Integrity Lead in the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and held an assignment in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Cid served in the public sector in the Philippines as the inaugural Antitrust Commissioner of the Philippine Competition Commission, with the rank of Under Secretary/ Deputy Minister. He was an Impeachment Prosecutor in the historic first impeachment against a sitting Philippine President for plunder/grand corruption. Cid is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of the Philippines.