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“The Norwegians clearly wanted to put out a test case that could be taken seriously." -- Eric LeCompte of Jubilee USA
WASHINGTON, Aug 19 2013 (IPS) - Anti-poverty campaigners are celebrating the Norwegian government’s
release of an external audit of all outstanding public debts it is owed by developing countries, the first time any country has undertaken such a process.
The investigation, by the international financial services company Deloitte, was conducted on aid packages offered by the Norwegian government to developing countries since the 1970s. Auditors were tasked with studying whether the deals, mostly concessional trade agreements, complied with past and present national guidelines as well as with newly established international principles.
The audit marks the first concrete use of what are known as the Principles on Promoting Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing, established by a United Nations working group in April 2012 and still in the process of being rolled out. The Norwegian government has been a key supporter of the process of creating the principles, under the auspices of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
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