Secretary of State John Kerry warned Wednesday that corruption is robbing governments around the globe of the money they should be collecting for themselves.
“[T]oday we see a corruption level that is stealing the future from people all over the world,” he said in Oslo, Norway. “Hard-earned revenue that should be going to the state – and I’m talking about whether it’s in Yemen, which saw billions of dollars stolen, or in Nigeria – and you can run the list.”
Kerry indicated that governments are putting too much trust in banks, as they are depositing money in banks that are “supposedly in good standing with the world.”
He also said this problem is contributing the an increase in the number of “bad governments” that are leading to instability and is destroying the lives of citizens around the world.
“[T]he bottom line is that the number of failed or failing states as a consequence of bad governments is growing, not diminishing,” he said. “And it is robbing too many citizens of economic opportunity and hope.”
Kerry said climate change is another hurdle, and said countries need to find a way to root out corruption in order to preserve the funding needed to bring peace and stability to the world.
“So I believe we need a whole new set of understandings and, frankly, a much fresher commitment on a global basis in order to conduct an all-out campaign to improve governance and root out corruption so we can build, literally, a strong and sustainable global economy that unlocks opportunity rather than stifles it,” he said.
“[O]ne thing that I have learned over the course of a career as soldier, senator, and secretary of state: we simply cannot meet the challenges that we face on the cheap,” he added. “And too many people are settling for that.”
