! International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) Business Plan 2011-2013 Adopted by Board of the Basel Institute on Governance on 22 July 2010 1. Introduction Corruption is a major impediment to economic growth, social stability and poverty reduction. Most burdensome to developing and transition countries is the fact that high-level corruption plunders national wealth when resources are badly needed for investments into important public services such as health, education and economic development. The World Bank estimates that each year 20- 40 billion USD are stolen from developing countries. Successful asset recovery cases are a strong signal of countries demonstrating that corruption no longer pays. Recovering stolen assets is a fundamental principle within the international framework for fighting corruption and impunity. This principle is enshrined in Chapter V of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which came into force in 2005. Shortly thereafter, the Basel Institute on Governance established the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) with the support from the Governments of Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Principality of Liechtenstein. In 2007, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Bank jointly launched the Stolen Assets Recovery Initiative (StAR). In the summer 2009, in Pittsburgh, the G-20 subsequently confirmed that its members should increase support for asset recovery programs that aim to reduce corruption and improve governance by monitoring and recovering public resources in poor countries. In December 2009, the UN General Assembly took note of the existing cooperation between the ICAR with the StAR initiative. Only just recently, in June 2010, a Global Forum on Stolen Asset Recovery and Development, jointly organised by the Swiss Government and the World Bank, stressed the urgent need to strengthen the asset recovery framework. This Forum also re-iterated the strong nexus between fighting corruption and development. While we have observed a series of positive international efforts and developments in the area of asset recovery, in fact only very few cases in recent years have been successful in recovering stolen assets. The main reason for this situation is that the capacities of victim countries are still very low. Asset recovery is a lengthy and complex process where we cannot and should not expect quick results. Indeed, asset recovery processes involve a series of stakeholders whose activities need to be well and timely coordinated on a domestic and on an international level. Not surprisingly therefore there remains ample room to provide more hands-on assistance and support to developing and transition countries to more effectively locate, freeze, seize and repatriate stolen assets. Such assistance is in fact the core mandate of the ICAR which aims to support efforts that seek to increase the efficiency of the asset recovery process on a longer term basis. The Basel Institute on Governance, through ICAR, is in a good position to provide technical capacity building support and assistance to processes of recovering assets. During the past 4 1/2 years, the ICAR successfully established the necessary institutional and operational framework and resources ! Page!2! ! ! to effectively carry out its mandated activities and efforts which support asset recovery efforts. To name just a few of those resources: The ICAR has developed a unique hands-on methodology that provides for fully customized, practical, interactive and participant-based training programme for financial investigations, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery. The ICAR has provided training programs on how to conduct financial investigations, nationally and internationally, to over 1000 public officials in more than 30 countries. The ICAR employs experienced practitioners from major financial centres to support developing countries in pursuing their investigations abroad. The ICAR has also established a well-known, free-of-charge online knowledge centre for asset recovery (www.assetrecovery.org). Furthermore it has launched the Asset Recovery Experts Network (AREN), an informal social networking platform which by now has registered nearly 300 members. The ICAR, jointly with the Egmont Group, also works on the Asset Recovery Intelligence System (ARIS) which – once fully developed - will assist FIUs and specialised Law Enforcement Agencies to identify corruption related transactions. Last but not least, the ICAR has published a number of practical books and working papers, including the lead publication, “Stolen Assets Recovery”, edited by Mark Pieth. The Basel Institute on Governance, through ICAR, has become the leading non governmental institution in the area of asset recovery. During the past 3 years, the Basel Institute has successfully developed a noteworthy network of partnerships, through which it is able to more effectively and transparently conduct its various operational activities. For example, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UNODC and UNICRI, an Executive Agreement with Interpol as well as an Indefinite Delivery Agreement with the World Bank Group (StAR Initiative) which was has been extended in May 2010 for another year. Currently the Basel Institute is negotiating an agreement with the newly established International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA). In addition, the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units has invited the Basel Institute to become a member of the Donors and Providers Contact Group on Technical Assistance and Training. It also continues to maintain close working relationships with – among others - the OECD Working Group on Bribery, the OECD DAC Anti-Corruption Task Team, the International Criminal Court, bilateral donors, the Academy of European Law (ERA) and the IMF. 2. Conclusions from previous work and looking ahead In our view, the current asset recovery process still suffers from a number of significant constraints. The ICAR can address these deficiencies in the manner as described below. Table 1: Indentified constraints in the asset recovery process and possible ICAR interventions Identified constraint ICAR’s intervention Lack of political will (in financial centres and in developing countries) - Support countries to ratify and implement UNCAC - Support civil society organisations to advocate cases - Increase awareness among donors and international organisations Lack of domestic resources to investigate financial - Financial investigation and asset recovery ! Page!3! ! ! crime and corruption Training - Case consultancy: Strategic case advice - Develop and promote innovative legal tools Lack of transparency in financial transactions and structures - Develop the Asset Recovery Intelligence System (ARIS), jointly with Egmont Group of FIUs - Coordinate efforts with the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development - Support countries to implement UNCAC and FATF1 40&9 Recommendations - Support civil society organisations to trace assets Lack of domestic cooperation - Multi-stakeholder trainings (including FIU, investigators, prosecutors, and, if applicable, judges) - Support the creation of an inter-agency asset recovery working group and task forces - Provide investigative/prosecutorial manuals and checklists - Asset Recovery Expert Network (AREN) Lack of international cooperation - MLA training - Facilitation of formal cooperation and coordination - Provision and access to networking tools (AREN) - Support regional networks (e.g. ARINSA) - Organise experts meetings to exchange experience/best practices Lack of knowledge - Develop and provide practitioners handbooks (e.g. asset tracing, typologies of laundering the proceeds of corruption) - Conduct research on specific topics - Knowledge Centre (www.assetrecovery.org) Many activities in previous years have been carried out on behalf of or in cooperation with an intergovernmental organisation. Thus far, these organisations have not implemented any kind of outcome monitoring mechanism. In most cases, participants of such trainings simply reported back to the ICAR, letting the ICAR know that they were extremely pleased with the ICAR training style and product. In some exceptional cases, the countries reverted back to the ICAR requesting additional assistance on a particular case. However, such informal channels and arrangements have not really enabled the ICAR to adequately measure the impact of its products and services. In addition, the ICAR has in fact also worked on a number of concrete asset recovery cases. Yet, these cases have not produced any direct, or tangible results in form of seized and/or repatriated assets. Only in one country, can the ICAR claim to have assisted the country in freezing significant assets following our intervention. In this particular incident, the cases are still under investigation. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering ! Page!4! ! ! To address this issue, the ICAR will increase its work on case specific support and enhance its monitoring mechanism to measure the impact of its operational activities for the next phase (2011- 2013). There will be a constant need for ongoing training, but training will only be provided to countries that have and demonstrate the necessary political will to recover stolen assets and where there is a potential for ongoing work on specific cases. This more narrow focus will allow the ICAR to concentrate its training efforts on a smaller number of countries and thereby offering more targeted capacity building assistance. By providing training programs in a more focused manner, and complemented by a number of ICAR technology-based and other tools, the intensified effort and focus to invest ICAR resources into case specific support and work will result in higher numbers of Mutual Legal Assistance requests, will lead to an increase in freezing actions of assets, domestically and abroad, as well as to an increase in observed seizing and recovery of stolen assets actions. The ICAR will continue to be able to combine the operational activities with with policy dialogue at international level. 3. Vision, mission and values In June 2010, for the purpose of defining and guiding its work for the next years, the ICAR team adopted the following vision, mission and value statements. Vision Our vision is to be a leading provider of technical and advisory services to render capacity building assistance to countries in their efforts to recover stolen assets. By 2013, the ICAR will have supported developing countries in their endeavours to recover assets in the range of USD 30 – 50 million. ! Page!5! ! ! 4. Objectives / expected outcomes The ICAR’s overall objective is to contribute to the reduction of corruption in developing and transition countries by providing for practical assistance to detect and investigate financial crime and thereby contributing to improved conditions of rule of law. The more specific objective is to support the process of recovering proceeds of corruption (“stolen assets”) as referred to in the UN Convention against Corruption, both in developing countries and in financial centres. Specific outcomes by end-2013 1. In the countries where the ICAR is focusing its technical assistance (ICAR partner countries): - An annual increase of 10% in he number of new financial investigations with an asset recovery element; - An annual increase of 10% in the number of Mutual Legal Assistance requests - At least USD 10 million are frozen domestically 2. In the relevant financial centres where ICAR partner countries have requested Mutual Legal Assistance: - At least USD 20 million are frozen based on MLA requests which have been submitted with the assistance of the CAR 3. The ICAR will have supported at least 3 FIUs, investigative bodies or civil society organisations in tracing stolen assets Our mission & values We are an independent, non-profit, multi-disciplinary centre of excellence in asset recovery. Our mission is to provide research-based policy guidance, as well as legal advice and capacity building to developing countries and countries in transition. Our approach involves the development and delivery of tailor-made, interactive training programmes and country-specific consultancy services with the support of practical technology-based tools. We consistently work to respond flexibly to a country’s specific needs in enhancing their skills and capacities to trace, identify, seize, freeze, confiscate and repatriate stolen assets. Our methodologies apply a coordinated, integrated and partnership-oriented approach to ensure sustainability of the services provided to the countries. ! Page!6! ! ! These outcomes will be monitored on a country level, for ICAR partner countries only. ICAR will select up to 6-8 countries (partner countries) that fulfil the following criteria: - Part of a region where ICAR has focussed on in the past (South East Asia, Sub-Saharian Africa, CIS) - Necessary degree of political will - No overlap with other donors, unless the activities can be coordinated - Availability of a local partner on the ground (e.g. an Anti-Corruption Agency, a donor, an NGO) that can assist in monitoring the outcomes - Possibility to combine at least 2 of ICAR’s main products (training, case consultancy, tools) Monitoring sheet: Country Indicator Outcome Hypothesis XX New financial investigations with an asset recovery element + 10% from previous year Unified methodology needed MLA Requests sent in connection with financial investigations + 10% from previous year CA statistics must be available Freezing of potential proceeds of financial crime domestically USD 10 million within 3 years Freezing of potential proceeds of financial crime in foreign country, based on request by ICAR partner country USD 20 million within 3 years Monitoring mechanism with financial centre authority needed New asset tracing successes 3 success stories within 3 years Contact via Egmont Group and CSO coalition 5. Strategy To achieve these objectives, the ICAR will follow these lines of intervention: 1. Continue to offer hands-on technical assistance in the area of capacity building in the form of customized training, legal and case consultancy (coaching, facilitating) and providing for tools to facilitate the asset recovery process; 2. Strengthen its capacities for policy development and research; 3. Concentrate its activities on regions where the ICAR has worked before, where a reliable partner has been identified and where it is, as much as possible, familiar with the current local and political situation; 4. Focus on countries where case specific support is more likely to lead to concrete ! Page!7! ! ! success (ICAR partner countries); 5. Continue to expand its network of partnerships with World Bank, Interpol, Council of Europe, IMF, OECD AC Task Force and UNODC and establish new partnerships with IACA, CARIN, Europol and other key players; 6. Jointly with its partners, identify entry points for enhancing case work and flexibly allocate resources to facilitate the cooperation between requested and requesting countries; 7. Contribute to strengthening the legal framework by initiating and/or promoting innovative legal concepts that will address deficiencies in the asset recovery process; 8. Enhance cooperation with civil society to support the discovery of asset recovery cases, enhance the flow of information and the monitoring of returned assets; 9. Strengthen its mechanism(s) for monitoring impact in recipient countries; 6. Stakeholders and beneficiaries Table 2: Stakeholders in the asset recovery process Stakeholder Role in the asset recovery process ICAR’s intervention Civil Society Advocacy Civil Litigation Publicity Monitoring the use of recovered assets - Expert meeting and publication on the role and responsibility of the non state actors - Supporting civil society with collecting intelligence - Research on the monitoring of returned assets Lawyers Representing victims (lawyers) in civil and criminal cases - Expert meeting and publication on the role and responsibility of the non state actors - Assistance in the selection of experienced law firms for victim countries Private sector (Financial Institutions in particular) Preventing proceeds of crime from entering into the financial sector Detecting crime Reporting to FIU - Expert meeting and publication on the role and responsibility of the non state actors - Development of red flags/typologies for financial institutions - Training of financial ! Page!8! ! ! institutions to detect corruption - Implementation of effective PEP requirements Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) Collecting and analysing intelligence Disseminating intelligence to law enforcement Exchanging intelligence internationally - Asset Recovery Intelligence System (ARIS) - Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery Training - Development of red flags/typologies - Asset Recovery Experts Network (AREN) - IT assessments - Knowledge Centre Investigative bodies Investigating financial crime (corruption and money laundering) Exchanging information with other investigative bodies internationally - Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery Training - ARIS - AREN - IT assessments - Knowledge Centre Prosecutorial bodies Prosecuting financial crime (corruption and money laundering) - Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery Training - AREN - Knowledge Centre Central authorities for mutual legal assistance (MLA) Liaising between countries that request and receive legal assistance - Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery Training - Specific MLA training - AREN - Knowledge Centre Courts Decision taking in criminal and civil cases - Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery Training - Providing for information on foreign court decisions (knowledge centre) - Knowledge Centre ! Page!9! ! ! Ministry of Justice / Anti- Corruption Commissions / Parliaments Preparing legal framework - Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery Training - Legal opinions - Gap analysis - Promoting and developing innovative legal tools - Knowledge Centre International Organisations and Donors Raising awareness Participating in policy dialogue - Brochures on asset recovery and AML - Participation in international for a and working groups - Expert presentations - Research Financial Intelligence Units, investigative and prosecutorial bodies, central MLA authorities courts and the judiciary are principle beneficiaries of ICAR. The ICAR stakeholders are indirect beneficiaries. 7. Guiding principles The ICAR seeks to provide tailor-made, country-specific, coordinated and highly targeted capacity building assistance, by combining practical training and case consulting, and by embedding its practice oriented work into policy development and research. 7.1. Tailor-made training and needs-driven approach The concepts of “needs-driven” and “country- or region- specific” are two key principles that guide the activities of the ICAR. The application of these principles is achieved by consistently working in close cooperation with local authorities and partner institutions, and by working in country, onsite, as much as possible. In the context of training, this means for instance that an onsite fact-finding mission is conducted 2-3 months prior to each country training in order to identify a country’s major capacity gaps and needs, and to gain a comprehensive understanding of the applicable legal and institutional framework of the country. As such, the ICAR trainers are then able to fully integrate the partner country’s laws, institutions, procedures and tools into their training programs, and to actively engage local capacity to ensure a high degree of relevance and sustainability of the trainings. 7.2. Practice-oriented To ensure that the ICAR’s activities have a direct influence on a country’s success in recovering stolen assets, all ICAR activities are consistently related to actual cases as closely as possible. All activities are delivered by experienced practitioners. Trainings are designed as interactive working exercises rather than university style lectures, to ensure that these practical exercises are as realistic as possible. Using password protected IT training systems, trainees are led from one investigative ! Page!10! ! ! lead to the next, as they successfully solve one element after another of the investigation. As they do so, they simultaneously are required to learn how to systematically and efficiently analyse and file case documents, how to proceed strategically both within their own jurisdiction as well as at the international level, and at what stages to involve which outside authorities. 7.3. Cooperation and coordination with key stakeholders The ICAR will seek to cooperate closely with all relevant actors and stakeholders, including governments, intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organizations, academia, the private sector, professional associations, and the international and local donor community. To ensure a high level of synergy with other institutions that offer comparable services in related fields, partnerships of both formal and informal nature will be sought regularly with key initiatives in the area of asset recovery. Particular interest will be placed on the coordination with the World Bank/UN ODC StAR Initiative and with Interpol, to avoid overlap and duplication. ICAR will regularly inform its partners on planned activities and seek coordination. On the domestic level, the ICAR will consistently seek to provide its activities to a wide range of stakeholders that are involved in the asset recovery process (see table below). The ICAR has identified a need to enhance domestic cooperation and therefore continues to focus on and apply a multi-stakeholder approach in the delivery of its services. The lack of domestic cooperation has been identified as a detriment to the success of many actual asset recovery cases (see Table 1, above). 7.4. Outcomes driven and sustainable Our capacity building programmes are not delivered just for the sake of delivering them. We closely monitor each activity and we have developed a set of indicators for each activity (see Annex 1). Monitoring impact is not an easy task: Asset recovery processes are by definition very time consuming. Success will depend on external factors such as continued political will over years – something that the ICAR cannot influence directly. The ICAR does not have permanent operations in the countries where the ICAR is active. We depend on third parties’ involvement in our programmes to monitor success. The specific outcomes which can be observed, and therefore potentially monitored, are an increase in the number of domestic financial investigations, an increase in the number of mutual legal requests to foreign countries and an increase in freezing proceeds of crime domestically and internationally. We can only successfully monitor impact of our work if: - We focus our work on a limited number of regions (countries where we have worked before and we are familiar with the local situation) - We work closely with a local partner (an NGO, an international organisation that has a more permanent kind of operation on the ground, or a local agency) over several years and involve them in the monitoring process - We offer, if applicable, the whole range of capacity building activities (training, consultancy, tools) to a specific country, not only one element - We only engage in countries that are likely to have cases and that demonstrate the necessary political will to recover stolen assets [...]... Knowledge Centre for Asset Recovery (www.assetrecovery.org) This free web-based resource centre compiles all relevant information on legislation, stakeholders, tools, cases and also offers a news section The Knowledge Centre is planned to be integrated with AREN (see above) The ICAR also provides for expert advice in setting up case management systems and evaluates IT systems for relevant stakeholders... information and experience, and get access to experts knowledge on matters related to asset recovery The plan is to involve the ICAR itself more actively in moderating AREN AREN should also become a tool to measure impact of our activities, by keeping in touch with all stakeholders with which the ICAR has worked The ICAR has successfully set up an internationally recognised Knowledge Centre for Asset. .. Gap Analysis 9.3 In the area of asset recovery support tools, the ICAR will: - Finish the prototype for ARIS by mid-2011 and install the system in at least 3 FIUs by end2012     Page  14     - Actively moderate and expand AREN to at least 500 members by end-2011 and 1000 members by end-2013 Integrate AREN and the Knowledge Centre into an International Asset Recovery Forum Assess in at least one country... other stakeholders on this topic Regularly provide expert opinions in leading international newspapers/journals on the subject of asset recovery and related areas Provide for at least 1 working paper and 1 policy paper per year Provide for at least 2 book contributions per year Provide for a second edition of the “Stolen Assets Recovery book by mid-2012 10 Resources and budget After having successfully... processes of harmonisation and coordination of asset recovery processes internationally In September 2010, the ICAR will hold a 2-day expert meeting on the role of non-stake actors in asset recovery 9 Planned activities 2011-2013 9.1 In the area of training, the ICAR will: - Deliver at least 3 national financial investigations and asset recovery trainings per year Deliver at least 1 regional training per... The ICAR sees the process of building capacity in asset recovery as a longer-term and continuous effort in which all relevant stakeholders of the process ought to be involved, i.e ministries, law enforcement authorities, non-governmental organizations, professional associations, academics and others For effectively building capacity in the field of asset recovery, the ICAR believes that the capacity building... research-based evidence and knowledge relevant to the practice and policy development in the area of asset recovery, e.g by conducting comparative analysis and reviews of legal asset recovery practices or of underlying governance issues or the particular challenges of asset recovery in the context of failed states At the international level, the ICAR will continue to share its experience with other key stakeholder... interactive financial investigation and asset recovery training In the future, the ICAR will develop e-learning opportunities, especially as a refresher for participants of previous trainings 8.2 Legal and case consultancy (Annex 1.2) In the area of legal consultancy work, the ICAR provides for reviews of existing and proposed new legislation in the fields of asset recovery and related criminal justice... trainings for investigators and prosecutors per year Develop a new training module for FIUs by mid-2011 Develop a asset recovery training module for senior officials / policy makers by end-2011 Develop additional training modules upon request Complement the existing training programmes with e-learning modules/courses 9.2 In the area of legal and case consultancy, the ICAR will - Actively support 2 ongoing international. .. longer training for more experienced participants The basic version can also be delivered as a paper-based programme in cases where computers are not available The training can be provided for one country only (national version) or for a region (up to 15 countries, regional version) In addition to the interactive financial investigation and asset recovery training, the ICAR provides for a train-the-trainer . ! International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) Business Plan 2011-2013 Adopted by Board of the Basel Institute. online knowledge centre for asset recovery (www.assetrecovery.org). Furthermore it has launched the Asset Recovery Experts Network (AREN), an informal social