May 14-18, 2001

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Summary

A Conference Corruption within Security Forces: a Threat to National Security was held on May 14-18, 2001 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The conference was sponsored by the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Bundeskriminalamt (BKA).

The purpose of the conference was to provide forum for senior executive governmental officials, parliamentarians, academics, and heads of non-governmental organizations to exchange information and views on aspects of organized crime that pose a potential threat to the national security and regional stability. This year's conference was focused on corruption of governmental officials and processes within security forces: law enforcement, customs and border control, and military services. This conference was the second in a series of conferences hosted by the Marshall Center, the FBI, and the BKA to examine the threat that organized crime poses to national security and regional stability.

The objectives of the forum were to:

• Evaluate the threat that corruption within security forces poses to development of democratic processes and institutions; and its impact on force protection, national security, and regional stability.
• Determine what is required for the early and successful identification and containment of corruption within the security forces.
• Review the effectiveness of measures that have been used to date to combat and contain corruption within security forces.
• Propose measures and processes that should be implemented domestically and transnationally to eliminate corruption within the security forces.

More than 160 participants from 19 countries and international organizations attended the conference. Among them were Mr. John Brandolino - US Department of State, Mr. Michael DeFeo - Assistant Director of the FBI, Mr. John M. Barton - Assistant of the US Attorney, Ms. Johanna DeWinter - Deputy Coordinator of the Global Forum on Corruption II, The Netherlands, Mr. Frederic Wehrle - Anticorruption Division of OECD, Dr. Eric Rudenshiold - OSCE, Ms. Mirela Gruentner - representative of the Office of High Representative (OHR) Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ms. Gwen L. McClure - Head of the Organized Crime Projects of Interpol, Mr. Rik N. Seaman - Director of the Central & East European Law Initiative of the American Bar Association (ABA/CEELI), Mr. Drago Kos - Vice Chairman of GRECO, Major General Vladimir Makarov - Deputy Head of Chief Directorate Combating Economic Crime of the Ministry of Interior, Russia, Judge Milton Mollen - Chair, City of New York, Mr. Robert Ciaffa - US Department of Justice, Dr. Alan White - Defense Criminal Investigative Service of the US Department of Defense, Mr. Hans-Ulrich Benra - German Ministry of Defense, Mr. Pierre Conesa - Special Advisor of the Minister of Defense, France, university professors from Colgate University, American University, Inter-American Defense College, United States, Keele University, United Kingdom, and many others.

The participants expressed their views and discussed the following main topics:

• Corruption within Security Forces: Defining and Identifying the Problem Cross-Border Corruption:
  Causes, Effects and Challenges for Reform,
  Corruption within Law Enforcement and Border Control,
  Corruption within the Military;
  
  
• Investigating and Prosecuting Corruption within Security Forces;
  
  
• Fighting Corruption within the State: Rule and Role of Law,
  What is to be Done: Fighting Corruption within Security Forces with Law,
  Combating Corruption in Governmental Agencies: Rule and Role of Law,
  Building the Legal Infrastructure and Coordinating Key Organizations;
  
  
• Fighting Corruption with Remedies other than Law,
  
  
• Fighting Corruption Together: Taking the First Steps.

The Transnational Dimension of Corruption and the Need for Cooperation and Legal Harmonization

Two Plenary Panels of Specialists, Working groups and Case Study Discussions within them, Open discussions and exchange of information on the above main topics were organized in the framework of the conference. Three parallel Workshops and series of presentations and discussions within their framework were also held. The topics included:

• Workshop I - Building an Open Society,
• Workshop II - Developing Good People, and
• Workshop III - Governmental Checks and Balances.

Participating in panels and workshops as speakers and commentators throughout the conference were representatives of Bundeskriminalamt Germany, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), German Ministry of Interior, German Customs Service, German Ministry of Defense, US Customs Service, US Department of Defense, US Department of Justice, US Department of State, US Agency for International Development, Bulgarian Ministry of Defense, Coalition 2000, the Center for the Study of Democracy.

Keynote Speaker of the conference was Mr. Max-Peter Ratzel - Head of the Department of Organized Crime in Federal Criminal Investigation Bureau of Germany (Bundeskriminalamt). Moderator of the Conference was M.E. Bowman from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

At the conference Bulgaria was represented by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense, the Supreme Cassation Prosecutor's Office, Sofia District Court and Sofia District Governor's Office, as well as the Center for the Study of Democracy and representatives of the anticorruption initiative Coalition 2000.

Dr. Ognian Shentov, CSD President, made a presentation on the topic Corruption within Law Enforcement and Border Control. He addressed corruption within agencies responsible for law enforcement and border control: how and why these organizations are a target for corruption, the range of activities in which they have become implicated, the effect of corruption on law enforcement and the control of borders and the impact on society and on regional stability. Mr. Alexander Stoyanov expert of Coalition 2000 took part in the discussion on the topic Investigating and Prosecuting Corruption within Security Forces. He presented the techniques used by Coalition 2000 for monitoring corruption in Bulgaria. Among the speakers on the topic Fighting Corruption within the State: Rule and Role of Law was Ms. Nelly Koutzkova, Chair of Sofia District Court, who stressed on the legal issues associated with combating corruption and especially the Parliament's role in building a legal infrastructure. Dr. Maria Yordanova, theCSD Law Program Head, Ms. Alexenia Dimitrova, Investigative Journalist of 24 Chassa Daily, as well as Mr. Plamen Petkov, Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense, took part in the discussion on the topic Fighting Corruption with Remedies Other than Law (Building an Open Society and Developing Good People). They presented the role of Bulgarian nongovernmental organizations and governmental institutions in developing and implementing a comprehensive action plan to combat corruption, the role of the media and investigative reporting to uncover corruption, as well as the importance of established trust-based public-policy partnership in Bulgaria.

At the conference CSD participants had meetings with representatives of international organizations and national agencies, and useful contacts were established. A regional Conference on corruption as a follow up of the corruption conference in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in May 2001 will be held in March 2002 in Sofia jointly by Marshall Center and CSD. The possibility to organize anticorruption training for representatives of security forces and other law enforcement agencies in Bulgaria was discussed with German senior officials from Bundeskriminalamt (Mr. Claus-Peter Holz, Leader of the Section Corruption, Weapons Crime, Environmental Crime), Ministry of Defense and Bundeswehr. Mr. Guido Mathes, Head of Department in the Bundeswehr Academie for Information & Communication paid special attention to CSD work on the establishment of the ombudsman institution in Bulgaria and proposed assistance in its future activities on the issue.