Increasing Transparency and Accountability

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Rodney Bent, Acting Chief Executive Officer

The fight against global poverty is intertwined with the fight against corruption. That’s why we insist that our partner countries pass a corruption indicator to qualify for MCC’s compact assistance and maintain a passing score before MCC will enter into a compact with an eligible country. And, that’s why we codified this week MCC’s existing oversight approach into our Policy on Preventing, Detecting and Remediating Fraud and Corruption in MCC Operations.

True to our ongoing commitment to transparency, I invite you to visit our website and read this policyand, in the near future, a resource guide will be made available. Since our establishment, we have practiced fiscal accountability, technical due diligence, and monitoring and evaluation as part of how we operate. Our policy now formally captures and outlines these and other principles we have been applying-and will continue to apply-in order to prevent, detect, and remediate the risk of fraud and corruption in MCC’s threshold program as well as in compact development and implementation. I want to thank those in the development and NGO community who provided valuable feedback to us during the process we undertook to formalize our policy.

At a time when Americans are focused intensely on accountability, U.S. Government agencies, including MCC, continue to do our part to incorporate heightened accountability into all facets of our work. Fraud and corruption divert and diminish the flow of benefits to those who need them the most. The seriousness of our dedication to economic growth and poverty reduction means that we are serious about addressing corruption. We want every development dollar we invest to deliver the greatest benefit possible in the fight against global poverty.