Financial disclosure by public officials can serve multiple anti-corruption objectives at once and can support anti-money laundering and asset recovery efforts. Despite the growing prevalence of these systems and the advent of relevant new technologies, financial disclosure information is still largely underutilized. What does it take to ensure that an asset declaration system is effective? What are the different ways in which financial disclosure information could be used at the domestic and international levels to fight corruption and money laundering? What type of technological tools have been developed? What is the future of financial disclosures by public officials? Join the Challenge!
Moderator:
Ivana Rossi, Financial Sector Expert, Legal Department, International Monetary Fund
Panelists:
M Emilia Berazategui, Global Advocacy Coordinator, Transparency International
Silviu Popa, Secretary General, National Integrity Agency of Romania (ANI)
Vitaliy Shabunin, Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Ukraine
Guillaume Valette-Valla, Magistrate, Former Secretary General of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life of France
Join the conversation: #anticorruption #IMFChallenge
Moderator
Ivana Rossi, Financial Sector Expert, Legal Department, International Monetary Fund
Ivana M. Rossi is a Financial Sector Expert at the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund. Her work focuses in the areas of financial integrity and anti-corruption, promoting synergies between the two fields.
Prior to joining the Fund, she worked at the World Bank Group and the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR), leading engagements in anti-corruption, illicit financial flows, asset recovery, and anti-money laundering. For over ten years, she led the World Bank’s research and technical assistance program on financial disclosure by public officials, providing tailored technical support to countries and frequently contributing to international conferences and policy dialogues. Ms. Rossi authored the publications “Getting the full picture on public officials: a how-to Guide for effective financial disclosure” (2017) and “Using Asset Disclosure for Identifying Politically Exposed Persons” (2011), as well as several articles on the topic.
A native from Argentina, she has also worked in the civil society sector of her country on transparency and public sector reform initiatives.
Panelists
M Emilia Berazategui, Global Advocacy Coordinator, Transparency International
M. Emilia Berazategui is Global Advocacy Coordinator at the Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin, where she develops and implements the strategic advocacy work of the TI Movement, present in over 100 countries, at the international level. This includes TI’s work at international fora such as the IMF, World Bank, G20 and OECD. She also coordinates TI’s work within networks of other Civil Society organizations. She is currently a Steering Committee member of the Civil Society 20 (C20), the network of CSOs working on the G20, and was chosen to be International Chair of its anti-corruption working group. Since 2017 She has been closely involved in monitoring and evaluating the IMF’s anti-corruption work.
Prior to joining the TI Secretariat in Berlin, she worked for Poder Ciudadano, the leading anti-corruption organization in Argentina and the national chapter of Transparency International. Here, she was Director of the Political Institutions and Government area, the 2018 C20 Sherpa, and local chair of its anti-corruption working Group. An Argentine lawyer and Professor for Middle and Higher Education in Legal Sciences, she also worked as a professor at the University of Buenos Aires.
Silviu Popa, Secretary General, National Integrity Agency of Romania (ANI)
Silviu Popa is the Secretary General of the Romanian National Integrity Agency (ANI) since January 2016. He has a 12 years’ experience in the area of corruption prevention, being specialized in financial disclosure systems. Mr. Popa was a short-term expert in several trainings and anti-corruption projects with the Council of Europe, European Commission and the World Bank. He also contributed to several publications on topics concerning methods of reviewing the content of financial disclosures submitted by public officials and conflicts of interests or establishing effective financial disclosures systems.
In his capacity within the National Integrity Agency (ANI), Mr. Popa is responsible with coordinating the implementation of the EU`s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) objectives, fostering the dialogue with international stakeholders and similar institutions, drafting and implementing institutional and national anti-corruption strategies.
Mr. Popa graduated the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bucharest.
Vitaliy Shabunin, Anti-Corruption Action Centre, Ukraine
Vitaliy Shabunin, Chairman of the Board of the NGO Anticorruption Action Center. During the seven years of its work, AntAC team managed to develop, advocate adoption and control implementation of the key anti-corruption legislation in Ukraine.
For example, establishment of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), Specialized Anticorruption Prosecution Office of Ukraine (SAPO), Higher Anticorruption Court of Ukraine (HACC), Asset Recovery and Management Agency, as well as regulatory framework for their effective operation (including the system of e-declarations, criminalization of illicit enrichment, etc.).
Moreover, AntAC advocated the transfer of the state procurement of medicine to international organizations (economy amounts to 40% of the budget funds), developed and manages unique database of the national Politically Exposed Person and saved $185 mln. through monitoring and appealing public procurement in different spheres.
Guillaume Valette-Valla, Magistrate, Former Secretary General of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life of France.
Guillaume is a French Magistrate with 15 years of experience in public management and anticorruption policies.
Guillaume is currently lecturer at Sciences-Po Paris University and Magistrate at the Supreme Court of Audit in charge of International tax evasion investigations report and Tax incentives auditing. He has been for more than 4 years the funder and the secretary general of the High Authority for transparency in public life of France. The 60 people staff of the High Authority handles a diverse set of missions: it receives and controls the declarations of assets (control the absence of illicit enrichment) and interests (prevention of conflicts of interests) of 16,000 elected and appointed high-ranking officials and advises them on any ethical questions they may have in the execution of their public duties. They also oversee and monitor lobbying activities to provide information to the public about who is lobbying whom about what.
Previously, Guillaume enjoyed various positions in both the Public and Private sectors, as Prime Minister Legal adviser for institutional and legislative affairs or deputy public prosecutor as well as attorney in a law Firm. He holds master’s degrees in Law from Paris II University, in Political Science from Sciences-Po Paris and in Public administration from the London school of Economics.