CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 04/2020

LE MONDE IACA | INTERVIEW
“A society with a functioning system
will be able to prevent corruption
more easily.”
great potential here, for we have 76 member
states and four member organisations. We
are also working with regional centres and
businesses. And for the third pillar, we are
expanding the science pillar. We want to
enable better networking between scientists
and their work on the topic of the fight
against corruption and create and integrated
platform.
What has been the effect of the coronavirus
pandemic on the teaching process?
It goes without saying that the Covid-19
lockdown has had significant impacts on
our programmes and projects, which had
all been taught face-to-face up until then.
Suddenly, nobody could come to Laxenburg
anymore and we were forced to transfer
everything we had built over a ten-year
period onto an e-learning platform. In this,
we succeeded. We were able to continue our
academic programme without a loss in time
or quality. Now, our students aren’t sitting
in Laxenburg anymore, but across five different
continents using their computers. Our
teachers are also logging in from anywhere
in the world. In that sense, we have become
more mobile and more independent. And
because there is no need for travel right
now, we are also saving a lot of money.
The term corruption is a little vague. Could you
define it better?
There is no global definition of corruption.
The UN convention also specifies that corruption
must be defined on the national level.
We could attempt to explain it like this:
Corruption is the acquisition, through financial
advantage, to benefits to which one
is not entitled. This could be a referee who
gets paid to whistle a penalty kick or someone
who awards a commercial contract.
Corruption spans across all sectors.
How seriously is the fight against corruption
being taken around the world?
It is up to each country’s legal system to criminalise
corruption. This goes further in
some countries and less far in others. There
is no perfect country, but some are less perfect
than others. Let’s look at party financing
for example. A society with a functioning
system will be able to prevent
corruption more easily. In Austria, politicians
don’t have to worry about their income
at the end of their political careers. Many
other countries don’t have a comparable
PHOTOS: RALPH MANFREDA
pension system. And thus, there is a great
temptation to put a little money on the side
and transfer it abroad. This needs to be
fought at the root by not putting politicians
in a position where they may end up without
money. On top of that, one has to
make sure that impunity is eliminated.
When you know that you won’t get away
with something, then the temptation to do
it decreases as well.
There is an international corruption index. How
meaningful is this index?
The index is not 100% conclusive – it is just
an indication. The index is created by civilians
and exerts normative pressure on banks
and governments to tighten up laws. However,
it does not propose any punitive measures.
It’s about blaming and shaming.
What we really need are peer reviews as
outlined in the UN convention, where states
can subject themselves to a review mechanism.
This is the best thing we’ve got
right now to put pressure on countries to
comply with legal standards.
Where do you rank Austria on the corruption
scale?
Austria is a highly developed society and
has a highly developed legal system, putting
it in a much better position than most other
countries. No country is perfect, but it must
be said that the Austrian institutions are really
effective, such as the Corruption
Prosecutor’s Office. One could, of course,
ask whether the office is working as planned,
whether it is financially well equipped.
But it is there and it works.
Could you imagine an international criminal court
for corruption? Similar to the Court of Human
Rights?
We are not a public prosecutor’s office – we
try to strengthen institutions so that there is
no more corruption. Our goal is to support
national systems so that corruption is prosecuted
on a national level. This doesn’t necessarily
require a criminal court. But there
is a lot happening right now, because there
will be a UN General Assembly on the issue
of corruption next year, which is now being
prepared. So, there are currently a lot of
ideas on the marketplace in terms of the
fight against corruption. One area where I
believe we should get more involved in is
whistleblower protection. Protecting whistleblowers
is crucial for the fight against corruption.
Know How
to Succeed
Economist &
Financial Times
Executive MBA
Rankings:
Top 35
worldwide
Join the MBA programs
of Europe’s leading
business university:
› real-life content
› students from > 30 nations
› internationally renowned
faculty
› COVID -19: remote
participation via hybrid format
Global Executive MBA
2 MBA degrees, jointly offered with
the University of Minnesota, USA.
3 intern. residencies:
e.g. Asia, South America, USA.
Professional MBA
Intern. residency: USA.
Specialization e.g. in
Finance, Marketing & Sales,
Digital Transformation & Data Science,
Energy Management, Project
Management, Entrepreneurship &
Innovation
IACA’s Dean Thomas Stelzer (right)
during the interview with CD author
Gerhard Bitzan at the Park Hyatt,
Vienna.
Vienna University
of Economy and Business
WU Executive Academy
mba@wu.ac.at
executiveacademy.at/mba
42 Cercle Diplomatique 4/2020