The UK could join three other countries on a “list of shame” for repeatedly failing to meet the requirements set out by a global anti-corruption body cofounded by the UK.
It has been warned that for the third time in a row it has fallen short of minimum requirements in its action plan to boost transparency, as set out as a condition of membership by the Open Government Partnership (OGP).
The OGP's chief executive Sanjay Pradhan said in a letter to the UK cabinet office that the government was now at risk of joining Malta, Malawi and El Salvador in being designated as “inactive” in the body.
An independent review commissioned by the OGP, which has 77 states as members, identified flaws in four of five commitments made by the government in its latest transparency plan.
A pledge to improve the openness of government procurement processes was described as “promising”, but remaining plans to tackle international corruption and illicit finance, develop open justice, improve transparency in the use of algorithms in decision making, and make health data more accessible, “lacked specific and measurable milestones that would allow detailed analyses of their potential for results”.
It is the third time in recent years that the UK has fallen short of the criteria set out by the OGP, which was established along with seven other countries under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government led by David Cameron in 2011.
Watergate scandal turns 50 — in pictures
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Former US president Richard Nixon points to transcripts of tapes after he announced during a televised speech that he would turn them over to House of Representatives impeachment investigators during the Watergate scandal. AP -
John Ehrlichman, a key figure in the Watergate scandal, was convicted of conspiracy and perjury and served 18 months in prison. AP -
FBI official Mark Felt was the 'Washington Post' informant that helped them break the Watergate story. AP -
Nixon tells a group of Republican campaign contributors that he will get to the bottom of the Watergate scandal during a speech on May 9, 1973, in Washington. AP -
The Senate Watergate Committee hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington took place in 1973. AP -
HR Haldeman, former top Nixon aide, speaks before the Senate Watergate Committee in Washington on July 31, 1973. AP -
Named in the Watergate scandal, from left to right, are G Gordon Liddy, White House counsel John W Dean III, former attorney general John Mitchell, and former Nixon deputy campaign manager Jeb Stuart Magruder. AP -
Howard Baker, vice chairman of the Senate Watergate Investigating Committee, questions James McCord during a hearing in Washington, on May 18, 1973. AP -
Nixon says goodbye with a victorious salute to his staff members outside the White House as he boards a helicopter after resigning the presidency on August 9, 1974. AP -
The traumas of Watergate and January 6 are a half century apart, in vastly different eras, and they were about different things. AP -
Nixon gives a speech at the White House following his resignation from the presidency after the Watergate scandal. Consolidated News Pictures / AFP -
Parking space D32 in the garage underneath the Oakhill Office Building, where 'Washington Post' reporter Bob Woodward would meet his source known as 'Deep Throat' to exchange notes about the Watergate scandal, in Rosslyn, Virginia. Getty Images / AFP -
Evidence from the Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. AFP -
The Watergate buildings feature office suites, a hotel and single-family residences. Getty Images / AFP -
Woodward was a cub reporter when he and veteran 'Washington Post' reporter Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story. AFP -
A break-in by five men looking to install microphones at the Watergate and take pictures of documents to find compromising information on Nixon's opponents led to the president's downfall. AFP -
Former 'Washington Post’s' executive editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katharine Graham seen leaving the US district court in Washington. AP -
Nixon met football star Pele in 1973 as rumblings of the Watergate scandal were beginning to surface. Photo: US National Archives -
A wanted poster features key people involved in the Watergate scandal at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. EPA -
The exhibition presents illustrations from the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal. EPA -
A photograph of Mark Felt and 'Time' magazine cover artwork called 'Nixon's Palace Guard' are part of the display. EPA -
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein eulogises his former boss and 'Washington Post' executive editor Ben Bradlee at the National Cathedral in Washington. Getty Images / AFP -
A caricature which appeared on the cover of 'Time' magazine in April 1973. EPA -
The luxurious Watergate complex in Washington where the Democratic National Committee had its offices in 1973. AP -
The exterior of the modern Watergate Hotel in Washington. Photo: Ron Blunt -
The location of the clandestine meetings between Woodward and Mark Felt in 1972 and 1973 were kept secret until Felt came forward and revealed himself to be Deep Throat in 2005. Getty Images / AFP -
A historical marker stands outside the parking garage underneath the Oakhill Office Building in Rosslyn, Virginia. Getty Images / AFP -
Ben Bradlee, actor Dustin Hoffman and Harry Rosenfeld talk at the premiere of 'All the President's Men' at the Kennedy Centre in Washington. The Washington Post / AP
The government was first notified by the OGP in February 2021 that it had been placed under review after the 2019-2021 transparency plan failed to meet the minimum requirement for “public influence and co-creation”.
The OGP has now told the government it may recommend that the UK is added to the “inactive” list at a regional meeting in Rome in October.
The UK Open Government Network (OGN) co-ordinates civil society input into the UK’s national action plan.
“In 2011, the UK government was a founding member of the Open Government Partnership and provided global leadership on how and why governments should be transparent, held to account and involve the public in decision-making,” said OGN chairman Kevin Keith.
“Now, that very same partnership may declare the UK government inactive — it is a shameful fall from grace.”
Susan Hawley, executive director of research organisation Spotlight on Corruption, said the UK’s reputation as a “clean democracy is on the line”.
She added that civil society had been “repeatedly blanked” when offering to help the government develop an action plan for restoring public trust in politics, with crucial recommendations made by the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the independent review of the Greensill lobbying affair yet to be implemented.
“The government needs to take urgent action to show that it takes integrity in public life seriously,” she said.
UK prime minister says he takes corruption row very seriously — video
Rachel Davies, advocacy director at anti-corruption organisation Transparency International UK, said the UK had made some progress on economic crime, for example.
“But this risks being undermined without concurrent action on standards reform,” she said.
The government has been approached for comment.
