According to Global Financial Integrity (GFI) a US based think-tank, developing countries are currently losing ten times the amount of money they receive in aid each year through activities such as bribery, theft, drug trading, tax evasion and mispricing of exports and imports.
Most of the misappropriated money finds its way into western economies.
This massive transfer of wealth out of poorer nations is the most damaging economic condition undermining poverty alleviation and sustainable growth efforts in these countries, which are home to 80 percent of the world’s population.
The enormous transfers of financial resources have been facilitated for decades by a shadow financial system that has expanded globally since the beginning of the 1960s.
Edmund Rice International has accepted an invitation to join a global coalition of organizations lending their names in support of the work of Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development a consortium of governments and research and advocacy organizations, founded by GFI to push for improved transparency and accountability in the global financial system.
Transparency rather than regulation is seen as the key to addressing the re-building of a fair global economic system.