"Corruption continues to be a major obstacle to building prosperity and security for our countries and communities and, despite the great efforts made in recent years, continues to undermine the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development": he said the president of the National School of Administration (Sna) and former Minister of Justice Paola Severino as she opened the first annual meeting of the G20 anti-corruption working group in Gurugram, India.
The issue is particularly close to the heart of the Asian country, which holds the presidency of the G20 this year and which has wanted Italy to co-presidency of the working group, calling on Severino - who is also the OSCE's special anti-corruption representative - to keep the opening action.
"Italy is ready for the new challenges of the most sophisticated form of corruption and intends to focus attention on the new forms of 'liquid corruption' emerging in the globalized economy, especially the instrumental use by the mafias which use corrupt methods to infiltrate the public administration and public procurement and resort to money laundering to enter the legal economy", said Severino, dedicating a large part of his speech to the need to prevent the phenomenon through virtuous policies, a culture of legality and gender equality.
"A preventive approach is, in fact, crucial in the fight against corruption - he explained - since the trust of citizens, the effectiveness of institutions, economic development and state security are at stake, and an ex post repressive intervention cannot inhibit the harmful consequences of corruption".
A phenomenon in which "today's globalized economy has introduced new and sophisticated forms increasingly linked to serious crimes, including using corruption to facilitate and allow the infiltration of organized crime in the public and private sector", with "a strong transnational dimension ".
"For this reason - continued Severino - it is important to coordinate efforts at an international and supranational level to produce common legal standards and rules" but "
Harmonisation, technical assistance, good practices, education for participation and good governance are the 'weapons' available, together with adequate reforms and data exchange.
A separate chapter was dedicated to gender equality and the emancipation of women from various forms of corruption and blackmail, convinced that "a more equitable, transparent and responsible system encourages women's participation and discourages corruption" in general.