As a commitment to preventing and combatting corruption globally, the United States is providing assistance to four countries including Sri Lanka to help strengthen transparency and accountability within government institutions.
As part of a U.S. government-wide effort to combat corruption and facilitate asset recovery, the United States is co-hosting with the United Kingdom the inaugural Global Forum on Asset Recovery (GFAR) at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C. from December 4-6.
The United States has contributed $1 million to the World Bank and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) to organize the GFAR and provide technical assistance to support country-level capacity building and coordination on asset recovery cases.
The forum aims to facilitate the recovery of stolen assets from four countries – Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, and Ukraine – by convening more than 150 law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and financial center representatives to discuss ongoing asset recovery cases related to the four focus countries.
GFAR provides a platform to enable Sri Lanka and other focus countries to make tangible progress on significant asset recovery cases in connection with financial centers and other jurisdictions.
In addition to co-hosting GFAR, the United States has provided significant technical assistance to the four focus countries to strengthen anticorruption and asset recovery efforts.
Since FY 2016, the U.S. government has provided foreign assistance for anti-corruption efforts in Sri Lanka to improve the functioning of Sri Lanka’s legal system and civil society, and to enhance good governance.
Programs include the provision of a Resident Legal Advisor to provide anti-corruption and asset recovery training, and support to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption.
