The incorporation of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the
National Crime Agency (NCA), as proposed in the Conservative
Party’s manifesto, would be a backwards step in the fight against
corruption, according to Transparency International.
Robert Barrington, Executive Director Transparency International
UK said:
“Maintaining the independence of the SFO is crucial to avoid
corruption becoming a political football. The complex,
cross-border nature of corporate corruption is best tackled by a
specialist agency like the SFO. The underlying concern is that
this could be a crude attempt at either cost-saving or to neuter
the Bribery Act so that the UK can increase its exports at the
expense of the stability, security and economic development of
our overseas trading partners.”
“The SFO has had increasing success in recent years; previous
plans to abolish it have been discredited, and it is both
astonishing and of real concern to see this surface again. If
there are good reasons to abolish the SFO, they should be spelt
out; if there is a proper plan to replace the SFO, it should be
put out for consultation. At present we are faced with the
prospect of politicians deciding who to prosecute, the
elimination of decades of carefully-built expertise,
de-prioritisation of corruption and cutting back resources – as
well as splitting the combined teams of expert investigators and
prosecutors which is one of the SFO’s unique features and widely
praised throughout the world.
“This ill-conceived manifesto one-liner seems to contradict the
Prime Minister’s stated intent to take a global role in tackling
corruption. Previous governments have made good progress in
fighting corruption. It is therefore worrying that many of the
commitments to tackle corruption and corrupt money in the UK,
made since 2010, do not feature within this manifesto and it
looks like important mechanisms to fight corruption could be
rolled back.”
