I spent the last two and a half days listening to presentations at the international conference on “Public Accountabilty in Official Development Assistance” in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The participants, mostly representatives of liberal and democratic political parties from different parts of Asia, were confronted with the various dimensions of this important topic of the development debate: they could interact with ODA-donors, ODA- recipients, concerned civil society representatives, other political party leaders, journalists and members of the academe. Before we depart from this hospitable place tomorrow afternoon, there will be a session with parliamentarians, the elected political leaders of the people.

Looking into my note-book, I can summarize my conclusions as follows:

There exists a consensus that ODA is highly vulnerable to corruption. Said German specialist Andreas Proksch of the Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ): “Anybody who says there’s no corruption in the aid business is a liar.”

Everyone seems to agree that concerted efforts must be undertaken (and augmented) to increase public accountaibilty and fight corruption.

This is a relatively new development. Ten years ago, we were told, just alluding to corruption in ODA was taboo.

For me the most important conclusion has been: The best way to increase public accountability and fight corruption is by creating publicity. This was the one single common denominator of all presentations.

Here, the campaigns for the right to information have become a vital component of an overall effort to fight corrupt practices. Said Geert van der Linden, Vice President at the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB): “Openness is the worst enemy of corruption.”

The media offer many possibilities to increase transparency. The speakers made various references to the traditional media. Interestingly, not a single mention was made of the blogosphere. From the discussions in Cambodia, one could gather the great transparency debate has yet to reach the blogosphere.

I hope I am wrong.

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