Saudi Gazette report

NATAL, Brazil — Mazin Al-Kahmous, President of the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha), urged all G20 countries to contribute to the development of the GlobE Network.

Representing Saudi Arabia at the third anti-corruption ministerial meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20) held on Thursday in Natal, Brazil, Al-Kahmous emphasized the importance of enhancing international cooperation to effectively combat corruption during his address at the meeting.

Al-Kahmous expressed gratitude to Brazil for hosting the event and commended the achievements of G20 nations under its presidency. He congratulated Brazil on the unopposed selection of its representative as deputy chairman of the GlobE Network Steering Committee during a recent meeting in Beijing, China.

He highlighted Saudi Arabia's commitment to combating corruption since the launch of Vision 2030, which includes the development of the national anti-corruption strategy and proactive international partnerships to tackle cross-border corruption crimes.

The Nazaha president acknowledged the pivotal role of G20 countries in promoting a just world and ensuring a sustainable planet, particularly through the establishment of the GlobE Network, which currently includes 222 authorities from 123 countries, including 15 of the G20 states. He praised the network’s effectiveness in enhancing international cooperation, asset recovery, information exchange, and investigations among anti-corruption agencies.

In addition, Al-Kahmous discussed a global initiative for measuring corruption, designed to assist countries, investors, and stakeholders in evaluating anti-corruption efforts. He expressed hopes that reliable and transparent indicators of corruption would emerge from the second phase of this initiative, taking into account the diverse political and legal systems of each participating country.

The meeting also addressed cooperation in enforcing anti-corruption laws, accountability, transparency, asset recovery, and combatting all forms of corruption in alignment with relevant international agreements.

The G20 Ministerial Declaration endorsed a new anti-corruption action plan for 2025-2027, focusing on enhancing efforts against money laundering and ensuring the transparency of beneficial ownership. Additionally, the declaration supported high-level principles for the private sector to adopt comprehensive integrity measures to prevent and combat corruption and included an accountability report on combating corruption for G20 countries for 2024.

The inaugural G20 anti-corruption ministerial meeting was convened at Saudi Arabia's initiative during its presidency in 2020 to strengthen political commitment to anti-corruption efforts and enhance cooperation among member countries.