ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – The Basel Institute managing director highlighted the role of more affluent countries whose government or business leadership acts to "export corruption."
"The recent, for example, VW scandal shows that even in these countries, especially in the private sector, there is a lack of control," the Basel Institute on Governance asset-recovery center managing director Gretta Fenner said.
"There is a certain naivety about these organizations’ capacity to actually control misconduct," Fenner stressed, adding that informal structures permeate even seemingly non-corrupt countries like Switzerland.
"The fact that there is corruption in poorer countries does not mean that we, as richer Western countries do not carry our own responsibility," Fenner reiterated.
Fenner spoke to Sputnik on the sidelines of the sixth Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which opened in St. Petersburg on Monday. The UN anti-corruption session continues through November 6.
