Transparency is vital in the recovery and return of assets stolen through corruption. Proactive disclosure of data and documents are key elements of public accountability. This includes publication of amounts frozen, confiscated, and returned, case information, legal frameworks and return agreements. They are also important for cooperation: greater availability of data and publication of information around asset recovery enables States and civil society to identify what works and what does not, where more efforts are needed and can help citizens to understand the process.
This information is often difficult to find, however, with gaps in data availability across States parties to the UNCAC and few States publishing all their data in one place. In May and June 2025, members of the UNCAC Coalition Asset Recovery Working Group assessed the availability and accessibility of asset recovery data across 15 jurisdictions, covering both major asset-returning states and countries involved in efforts to return stolen funds to their jurisdiction.
Our report on this – Information and data availability in asset recovery – highlights that:
Only a minority of surveyed countries regularly publish asset recovery data, and even fewer provide accompanying methodologies, making cross-jurisdictional comparison difficult.
- Accessing case-specific information remains highly fragmented and it is difficult across all surveyed countries to get a full picture of cases being prosecuted for corruption and of completed cases from national sources alone.
- While most countries have enacted legislation, fewer than half have published asset recovery strategies, and even fewer publish memorandums of understanding or agreements governing asset return.
- Cost apportionment and asset-sharing criteria are also rarely published, impeding public understanding of the differences between recovered and returned amounts.
Based on these findings, we recommend in the report that:
- States should set up or designate a dedicated webpage that links to all relevant legislation, strategy documents, case information, memorandums of understanding and other agreements, as well as statistics and other relevant information.
- Where documents pertinent to cooperation in asset recovery cooperation do not exist, such as strategies and policies, including around cost-sharing, States should develop these as soon as possible, in an inclusive manner, and make them publicly available.
- States should, at least annually, publish annual asset recovery statistics, as well as the underlying methodology for their statistics to facilitate interpretation.
- Where statistics are not collected or not collated, States should institute policies to collect, collate and publish those statistics.
- To enhance international cooperation, States should exchange experiences and consider developing coordinated approaches to gathering asset recovery statistics and in developing plans, policies and strategies around asset return.
- States should continue regularly transmitting case information to the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative’s Asset Recovery Watch database and, where relevant, identify gaps in their reporting around cases.
While States have strengthened their ability to recover stolen assets on several fronts when it in recent years, data transparency is an area where progress is lacking and where even modest efforts to collate information, even before developing statistics, could greatly improve cooperation with other States parties and support civil society and citizen engagement.
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