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The Director of Central Bureau of Investigation, Shri U.S.
Misra today said while the Indian economic policy is marching
ahead into a new era of liberalization and globalization,
efforts are simultaneously being made to prevent all illegal
acts which pose a threat to the economic security of the country.
Addressing a large gathering of public sector officials of
the Govt. of Mauritius at Port louis, Mauritius, Shri Misra
said that India has taken effective steps to deal with the
menace of money laundering and terrorist financing. He said
that in order to provide a forum for exchange of information
relating to economic security of the country, an Economic
Intelligence Council (EIC) has been set up besides the passing
of the money laundering bill and establishment of a Financial
Intelligence Unit, INDIA (FIU-IND) which will be responsible
for receiving, analyzing and disseminating information relating
to suspect financial transactions to designated investigation
and prosecution agencies. He said that under the provisions
of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, there will be adequate
international cooperation to combat transnational offences
of money laundering. Shri Misra expressed India's keen interest
to work closely in fighting corruption in the public as well
as private sectors with the Independent Commission against
Corruption (ICAC), an Anti Corruption Agency of Mauritius.
Shri Misra who is heading a four-member delegation to that
country on the invitation of the ICAC, said that high technology
developments are being increasingly harnessed by the corrupt
to destroy the world order and kill the fundamentals of good
governance world-wide. He said that since corruption benefits
both the bribe givers and briber takers, none of them has
an interest to break the vicious cycle and the challenge lies
in breaking this mutually beneficial, self-perpetuating cycle
which has got entrenched in the systems and polity of most
of the countries. The Director, CBI said that electronic thefts,
frauds and sabotage give new dimensions to corruption. Such
high-tech crimes may contain digital evidence from a variety
of electronic devices and the challenge lies in combating
high-tech crimes with speedy scientific investigations. Speaking
on cross-border and domestic corruption, Shri Misra said cross
border corruption is of concern primarily because of its potential
to interact with domestic corruption and consequently strengthening
both the domestic and cross border corruption. He said that
tackling cross-border corruption is a complex challenge requiring
co-ordinated efforts among different States and anti-corruption
agencies and added that nothing can be achieved unless the
challenge of domestic corruption is effectively met. On corruption
and economic growth, Shri Misra said that corruption slows
economic growth and impedes investment. He said that cross
border corruption can be employed by economic interests to
gain unfair advantage over competitors which can result in
economic inefficiency in developing countries and domestic
competitors can be put to severe disadvantage or be driven
out of business altogether because of cross border corruption.
Shri Misra said that any law, regulation or procedure which
blocks, delays or raises the cost of movement of goods, information
and capital across international borders is a potential point
of corruption. Shri Misra said that in today's global trade
environment, there is an obvious need for countries to constantly
review their policies, laws, rules and procedures so that
they are more conducive to fighting corruption rather than
becoming the sources of corruption.
During the discussions with the Commissioner, ICAC, Mr. Navin
Beekary, the indian side agreed to provide training to the
personnel of ICAC in specialised areas at the CBI Academy
at Ghaziabad (U.P.) and also to send CBI officials, as and
when necessary, to Mauritius for providing training. The indian
side also agreed to provide technical assistance to the ICAC's
investigation division.
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