Two Vatican officials sign an agreement to cooperate in the fight against corruption

The prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy and the Vatican Auditor General signed a memorandum of understanding on the fight against corruption on Friday.

According to a message from the Holy See press office on September 18, the agreement means that the offices of the Secretariat for the Economy and the Auditor General "will collaborate even more closely to identify the risks of corruption".

The two authorities will also work together to implement Pope Francis' new anti-corruption law, enacted in June, which aimed to increase oversight and accountability in the Vatican's public procurement procedures.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by Fr. Juan Antonio Guerrero, SJ, head of the Secretariat for the Economy, and Alessandro Cassinis Righini, interim head of the Office of the Auditor General.

According to Vatican News, Cassinis defined the signature as "a further concrete act that demonstrates the will of the Holy See to prevent and combat the phenomenon of corruption inside and outside the Vatican City State, and which has already led to important results in recent months . "

"The fight against corruption", said Guerrero, "in addition to representing a moral obligation and an act of justice, also allows us to fight waste in such a difficult moment due to the economic consequences of the pandemic, which affects the whole world and it affects especially the weakest, as Pope Francis has repeatedly recalled ”.

The Secretariat for the Economy has the task of overseeing the administrative and financial structures and activities of the Vatican. The Office of the Auditor General oversees the annual financial evaluation of each dicastery of the Roman Curia. The statute of the office of the auditor general describes it as "the anti-corruption body of the Vatican".

A Vatican representative addressed the issue of corruption at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on 10 September.

Archbishop Charles Balvo, head of the Holy See delegation to the OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum, denounced "the scourge of corruption" and called for "transparency and accountability" in financial governance.

Pope Francis himself acknowledged corruption in the Vatican during an in-flight press conference last year. Speaking of the Vatican financial scandals, he said officials "have done things that don't seem 'clean'".

The June contract law aimed to show that Pope Francis takes his often declared commitment to internal reform seriously.

The new regulations also focus on controlling spending, as the Vatican will face an expected revenue cut of 30-80% in the next fiscal year, according to an internal report.

At the same time, the Holy See is facing investigations by Vatican prosecutors, who are looking into suspicious financial transactions and investments at the Vatican Secretariat of State, which could trigger greater scrutiny by European banking authorities.

From 29 September Moneyval, the anti-money laundering supervisory body of the Council of Europe, will carry out a two-week on-site inspection of the Holy See and the Vatican City, the first since 2012.

Carmelo Barbagallo, president of the Vatican's Financial Information Authority, called the inspection "particularly important".

"Its outcome could determine how [the Vatican's] jurisdiction is perceived by the financial community," he said in July.