More attention on financial aspects of crime

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The institutions of justice find it difficult to address corruption in the context of purely commercial and private sector transactions, said EU Consultant Prof. Barry Rider.

He was delivering a lecture on Accountability and Responsibility promoting integrity in the Financial Sector at the Central Bank Auditorium on Tuesday.

He said perhaps this is not surprising given the dominance of the notion of unfairness’ as justifying intervention and uncertainty to utilize this concept as a source of obligation in general, legal and business dealings. It is only when dedication to promoting good stewardship combines with the concern to promote fairness that seem willing and able to intervene.

Prof Rider said that the concept of corruption is protein and has meant different things at different times in different societies.

While most people have an understanding of what is corrupt, rather as the “inner voice” as St Paul would have it, when it comes to articulating and controlling such conduct through the law and institutions of the traditional justice system, real problems of definition, scope and proportionality arise.

He said that during the past twenty years one of the principal strategies in fighting serious crime, particularly criminal activity that is motivated by economic gain has been to attack, through a number of legal devices, the proceeds of crime.

At the same time, more attention has been given, for a variety of reasons, to the financial aspects of crime and in particular the development of financial intelligence.