Vatican: new MoU on the fight against corruption

By Vatican News

The Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, Fr Juan Antonio Guerrero, and the Auditor General ad interim, Alessandro Cassinis Righini, signed on Friday a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the fight against corruption. The news was announced the same afternoon through a communication sent out by the Holy See Press Ofice.

“The two Authorities of the Holy See will collaborate in an even closer way in the identification of the risks of corruption and to more efficaciously implement the recently approved law regarding transparency, the control of and competition for awarding public contracts by the Holy See and Vatican City State."

Commenting on the MoU, Alessandro Cassinis said, “This is yet another concrete act that demonstrates the Holy See’s desire to prevent and fight against the phenomenon of corruption inside and outside of Vatican City State, which has already borne important results in the past months.”

On his part, Father Guerrero emphasized that, “in addition to representing a moral obligation and an act of justice, the fight against corruption also makes it possible to combat waste in such difficult times caused by the economic consequences of the pandemic affecting the whole world, but in particular the weakest, as Pope Francis has recalled several times.”

Last June, a single procedure regarding contracts was issued for both the Holy See and Vatican City State. The law covers the transparency and control of contracts, as well as competition in awarding public contracts in view of improving the management of resources as well as reducing the danger of corruption.

The new Statutes of the Office of the Auditor General in the Vatican were approved by Pope Francis in January 2019. Those statutes elevated the Auditor General’s Office to an Anti-Corruption Authority.