Article Section: News

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured here), of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), argued at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) that the independence of the media was not under attack in Turkey despite the recent arrest of 26 journalists, as the Prime Minister noted that the journalists were not arrested for crimes related to their profession.

The PM asked the Council of Europe to send representatives to Turkey in order to assess the situation on the ground for themselves, with CoE Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland saying that he had accepted the invitation and that This [was] a constructive approach and a move forward in the discussion about media freedom in Turkey.

The PM later went on to state that the journalists were arrested in conjunction with the fight against those who advocate a military coup in Turkey, stating that this was not a problem that European countries faced.

For the original article from SETimes.com, please click here.

The photo of PM Erdogan comes courtesy of Reuters.

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Haitian officials, hours before the winners of Haiti’s run-off elections that brought Michel Martelly (pictured here) to power were supposed to take office, delayed the publication of final results amid accusations that at least 18 seats, possibly 19, were tainted by fraud.

The United Nations and other major international donors had expressed concern over 18 of the seats, with Haitian officials adding a possible nineteenth to the count. President-elect Martelly called for an independent probe into the manner to be conducted and for the international community to not recognize the results of the March 20th elections.

For the original story from RJR news, please click here.

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Gamal Mubarak, son of the former Egyptian President Hosni and the once-presumed heir to his father’s rule, has been summoned to appear before an Egyptian panel by the country’s newly created anti-corruption body in order to explain the sudden growth in his personal wealth.

Gamal Mubarak is not alone either – he is the third person from his father’s former regime to be called up recently by the anti-corruption body to be brought before the panel. Hosni Mubarak’s former Chief of Staff, Zakaria Azmi, and the former Interior Minister are also suspected of corruption, with the former planned to appear before the panel this Friday.

While Hosni Mubarak is currently under house arrest at the Red Sea town of Sharm-el-Sheikh, the assets of his wife, Suzannea, his two sons Alaa and Gamal, and their wives have been frozen under the request of the new Prosecutor General Abdul Majid Mahmud.

For the original article from Allvoices.com, please click here.

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GRECO (the Group of States Against Corruption) released a report on April 1st where Spain was criticized for not having done enough to improve transparency in the funding of political parties, especially at the local level, where 25% of a party’s funding typically comes from.

The European report was also highly critical of the level of financing done through bank loans and the amount of debt that Spanish political parties had due to these loans, amounting to approximately 144 million euros in 2005. GRECO made six recommendations for Spain to work on two years ago, with GRECO saying that Spain had not done enough to improve in these areas.

For the original article from the Spanish daily El País (also available in Spanish), please click here.

Please note that GRECO’s trademark is their copyright, with the picture being taken from their website, found above.

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One year after popular protests forced Kyrgyz strongman Kurmanbek Bakiev to flee the country for Belarus, the government of interim President Roza Otunbaeva (pictured here) is still struggling to fight corruption and organized crime says First Deputy Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov.

While some accuse the government of having done very little over the past year other than rename a mountain after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Mr. Babanov denied these claims. Fighting rampant corruption, bribery, and organized crime amidst soaring accusations against the government and infighting has never been done before in Kyrgyzstan, according to Mr. Babanov.

Nevertheless, Kyrgyzstan faces a myriad of problems, including the pro-Bakiev party being the largest party in the governing coalition, a weak economy, and the ever-present unrest of many of the country’s youth.

For the original story from GlobalSecurity.org, please click here.

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Transparency International announced via its website last week that it has called upon the Egyptian military regime to strengthen its anti-corruption laws and has hailed the ongoing investigations into former Mubarak-era officials, including former President Hosni Mubarak as well.

Starting yesterday (Sunday), TI Egypt held a workshop entitled Towards a new integrity system in Egypt that ended today. Furthermore, starting tomorrow, TI will be hosting A practical guide to asset recovery: How to guarantee accountability during the Egyptian revolution.

For the original press release, you can go to TI’s website, which can be found here.

Transparency International’s logo, found here, is their property.

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So many foreign NGOs work in Haiti that even before the devastating 2010 earthquake it was jokingly referred to as the Republic of NGOs. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive wants NGOs to register with the national government in order to cut down on the duplication of services, some of which compete with government services, and to improve coordination.

Many aid workers, however, are concerned about working with a government that they see as corrupt and inefficient. Making the system worse, according to many in the government, is the fact that foreign aid organizations offer better pay than the government, luring away the most talented Haitians away from government service.

Michel Martelly, the recently-elected President, at least according to the preliminary election results, also supports Bellerive’s desire to have foreign charities register with the national government.

For the original story, please click here.

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Lawmakers from the ruling PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) proposed on Friday (the 15th) to establish a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate allegations of bribery from the former Defense Minister, Akis Tsohatzopoulos (pictured here).

Mr. Tsohatzopoulos is suspected of accepting kickbacks over the controversial purchase of four German submarines a decade ago for the Greek Navy. The Greek Parliament is scheduled to discuss the proposal to create the inquiry committe on April 29th.

For the original article from SETimes.com, please click here.

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Eight years after Oskar Holenweger (pictured here, left) was accused of laundering money for South American drug cartels, a Swiss Federal Court cleared him of all charges last Thursday (the 21st). Mr. Holenweger, who was also accused of bribery, falsifying documents, and mismanaging clients’ assets, was also awarded the equivalent of $476,730 in compensation.

According to the original article from Swissinfo, The verdict is a blow for prosecutors who had described the case as an attempt to bolster Switzerland’s efforts to get tougher on corruption.

Furthermore, the case has implications beyond Mr. Holenweger and any possible appeal. The Federal Prosecutor for the case, Erwin Beyeler, may be in trouble in connection with the use of testimony from José Ramos, a Colombian drug baron, which was obtained illegally, although Mr. Beyeler has denied any connection.

The link to the original article can be found above, from where the photo of Mr. Holenweger was also obtained.

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Armenia’s Prime Minister, Tigran Sargsyan, says that the government must implement measures that raise the quality of Armenia’s service and fight corruption. PM Sargsyan pointed to the annual vehicle check-up controls, the police force, and the issuance of driver’s licenses as starting points.

Mr. Sargsyan said that Our citizens must realize that the measure is supposed to put an end to the practice of extortion of money from them. While saying that the issuance of passports is now mostly devoid of corruption issues, at least according to recent reports, there needs to be an increase in general transparency in order to fight corruption in government services, as this is an area that is plagued by citizen complaints.

Fore the original story, please click here.

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The Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani, mentioned on Monday that corruption was one of the driving factors of the revolutions unfolding in the Arab region, among increasing unemployment and the increasing cost of living. The Premier went on to say that the Arab nations needed to embrace (political) reform in order to stave off growing unrest.

While the Qatari PM and FM tended to discuss the role of rising unemployment and how this exacerbated already increasing living costs, it is clear that widespread corruption in the Arab world in general, as seen in the recent arrests in Egypt, are not helping the situation.

While the Arab nations have been proactive in order to stimulate their respective economies after the financial crisis of 2008, the Arab region’s growth is still relatively lacklustre, especially when compared to many South American and East Asian economies.

For the original article from Gulf in the Media, please click here.

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Ginette Cherubin (pictured here) sent her letter of resignation to the Haitian Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) on April 24th, which was published by local media this Tuesday, after disagreeing with the Council’s decision after releasing the final results of last month’s legislative election.

Ms. Cherubin said that the decisions made by the CEP were not in accordance with established election rules, that there were irregularities during the counting of the votes, and that the National Election Tribunal had favored a certain candidate, although she did not mention the candidate.

This is not the first time that doubts over Haiti’s March run-off elections have been voiced in public over fraud and irregularities; several protests have taken place since the announcement of the final results that killed at least one person and injured several others.

For the original article from Xinhua news, please click here.

The photo of Ms. Cherubin comes from the 2010 Haitian Elections’ website.

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An interesting report examining the banking industry in Montenegro right after it declared independence from Serbia in 2006 was released on Tuesday. The report discusses widespread corruption in Montenegro, specifically in the banking industry.

Corruption is not on the only theme, however, as lax governmental oversight, rapid price fluctuations, and cheap money all play a part.

For the full report from Reuters, please click here.

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Kosovo’s former President Behgjet Pacolli denounced his successor, Atifete Jahjaga (pictured here) as having been handpicked by US diplomat Christoper Dell after his own election was deemed to be unconstitutional.

Pacolli went on to state that he had never heard of Ms. Jahjaga prior to her nomination to succeed him as the President of Kosovo. Mr. Dell responded by saying that the US had worked with Ms. Jahjaga for years and that many within the US State Department had a lot of respect for her after the 36-year old first joined the force in 2000 as a translator.

For the original story from B92.net, please click here.

The photo of Ms. Jahjaga comes from the Marshallcenter.org

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The accused in India’s high-profile telecom scandal, which allegedly may have cost the public up to $39 billion, were denied bail today by an Indian judge, citing that the evidence against them was incriminating. The scandal dates back to 2008 when telecom licenses for the 2G spectrum were allegedly sold well below the then-current market price.

Those accused include Vinod Goenka, the director of Swan telecom (pictured here), Sanjay Chandra, the director of Unitech Wireless – and the son of the billionaire property baron Ramesh Chandra, and 3 executives of the billionaire Ani Ambani’s group. A. Raja, the former telecoms minister, has also been arrested on allegations of corruption, which he denies.

Click the links for the original articles from Forbes and Reuters.

The photo of Mr. Goenka comes from the website of Dynamix Balwas Group.

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A dissident Sri Lankan journalist has been released on bail. While Bennett Rupasinghe (68 – pictured above) is accused of threatening a man, independent journalists and rights groups claim that the charges are actually intended to suppress the anti-corruption editor and media in general.

Lankaenews, the site that Mr. Rupasinghe works for, has been threatened and attacked multiple times in the past, including a recent fire that many suspected that the government was involved with because the online news site dedicates a lot of time to corruption issues, especially those where the government is involved.

For the original story from NewKerala.com, please click here.

The photo of Mr. Rupasinghe comes from SriLankaNewsToday.com, which also has further information on the story.

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The European Union, still reeling from corruption scandals involving several MEPs, backed a proposal on Tuesday night to create a lobby or transparency registry in order to more easily and openly track those with a legislative footprint, which would be attached to the end of EU legislation. MEPs also called upon the Council of Ministers to join the Commission and Parliament on the initiative.

The Italian Center-Right MEP Carlo Cassini, who drafted the report, said that This is a step forward, but obviously we will have to take others after this.There is a desire to name the piece a transparency registry rather than a lobby registry in order to involve non-business-oriented organizations such as churches and think tanks.

For the original story from Euractiv, please click here.

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Corruption from drug trafficking has increasingly become a problem in the Dominican Republic, as evidenced by the story of Elias Enmanuel Núñez, a former Lieutenant himself, who was fired and threatened after complaining about his superiors’ corrupt actions in the police force.

According to Núñez, I would arrest a drug dealer for having however many kilos of cocaine, and the next day the drugs I seized would be gone, and the guy would be back on his corner… I did not offer myself to that kind of thing, and now I can’t even get a job as a security guard.

Some interesting statistics from the report include:

— The armed forces have fired 2,300 soldiers in the past three years, including two generals and six colonels;

— 1,100 soldiers have been dismissed from the Air Force;

— 1,200 police officers were fired by the last police chief;

— The Army said it fired more than 100 soldiers for drug offenses alone.

For the in-depth story from Acquire Media, please click here.

This story and the photo above are related to the story from the Miami Herald.

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THE THREE Ms: MOCKUS, MANAGEMENT, AND MIRACLES

Septimius Parvu

How should a Mayor tackle corruption, mobilize the citizenry and fight the drug cartels? Is the rehabilitation of Bogotá a miracle or is it pure management and honesty? These questions have been answered by Antanas Mockus, a two-term mayor of Bogotá, between 1995 – 1997 and 2001-2003, and a former presidential candidate in 2010 (he placed second after Juan Manuel Santos, who won the elections).

R: I was hoping to ask you a few questions about corruption because I find it fascinating how you dealt with the corruption within the greater Bogotá Municipality. My first question is: you said that most of the councilors were corrupt or had connections with all kinds of businessmen. How did you deal with this and enforce your decisions?

A.M: By completely blocking their ability to blackmail, by having the conviction to do so, and by having the team convinced that, if during the three-year term, the councilmen didn’t make any decisions, there would be no agreement. Even if they radically opposed our initiatives, we had to be patient; I imagined that a new council would have been installed after 3 years of blockages, I was sure. So they never risked having any boycotts last longer than three months. And there were times when I pressed with stoic resistance; sometimes I didn’t say anything.

R: And in City Hall? Did you remove the previous public servants, or how did you clean up the municipality?

A.M: One of the first important steps was the stabilization of their work. At the national level, there was a law called carrera administrativa– administrative career – and I could have fired a lot of people and organized an exam, but the time limit was very short, so I decided to trust those people, even if they were working with the Mafia at the time. They belonged to a group. So people had two chiefs, a former one and a real political patron. So I decided to break up the patronage by incorporating these people en masse in the administrative career system.

The other thing was respecting the division of labor ; so, for example, the specialists in law. Each time the council made an agreement, they reviewed it to see if it was legal and constitutional. Everybody was amazed because I did the legality review solely from the point of view of legality, not convenience.

Sometimes, things were very funny. During the elections, a transporter called me and said he had three thousands votes. I told him that I didn’t need them and to let them vote as they want.

Another thing that helped a lot in fighting corruption was a very simple policy, using the general and private secretaries wisely. If someone asked for a meeting, the person was given a card to write with their own handwriting the objectives and topic of the meeting. So, during the meeting I had the card and when people tried to speak to me about other things, I said: “I can give you another appointment tonight or tomorrow morning. I like to prepare my appointments, so I will not speak to you about unprepared matters”. So, no one has ever written that they needed a contract or something else.

When we were children we were taught that God sees us everywhere. Today we have cameras.

R: You used cameras when you had meetings?

A.M: We did that once, for people. When we went to various localities, we connected to the local television networks. We did that in the mayor’s office once, but it was more about practicing how to speak about your enemy, your rival, in a way that the other listens to what you have to say. It was not meant to be too offensive. It was, to rephrase it, about saying “don’t ask me or offer me things in private that you would not ask or offer in public”. It’s a precaution.

R: You oversaw a lot of urban changes. How did you manage to do that? In Bucharest we have a problem because a great part of the land is owned by influential businessmen or by people with connections.

A.M: One thing was applying the law literally, and I remember a very rich person demanding a meeting with me. During the meeting, even in the paper, he said that he would like to discuss restrictions – he had to build high structures, a hotel. It’s called Casa Medina, and instead of building it high, he would have to buy all of the houses in the surrounding area and arrange them respecting the external appearance, because of patrimony. And when we met I said that there was a patrimony committee; I said: you cannot imagine how they would look at me, asking them to do this favor for you. Perhaps I lost his support, but I think he understood the arguments that I made. It’s an independent expert commission… the decision to keep or destroy is a very delicate question, arbitrary, because, at a certain point, he wanted to insinuate that I was the committee or a committee member and I said that I was not.

Society has high division of labor. Many times I used my metaphor of a circus in order to defend the division of labor. There were tigers, in a big cage, and the notary said: “I will not marry you, the circus yes, but not the tigers”. And I said: “we will have two specialists in managing the tigers and we have to trust them, because it will be an example of division of labor”. So let the decision be made by the experts.

Sonia Koshkina, considered to be one of Ukraine’s leading journalists, has accused the Ukrainian government of being a de facto plutocracy, with the 16-member cabinet claiming at least 5 multi-millionaires and one billionaire. While this is common knowledge in Ukraine, government officials still find ways to avoid publicly reporting all of their financial assets.

Ms. Koshkina, whose real name is Ksenia Vasilenko, who was speaking on behalf of online media site lb.ua, disclosed these details at an event in Brussels organized by the EU-Ukraine Business Council.

While Ukrainian diplomats were among those in attendance, they did not seem to be all that surprised by the disclosure, while many Western European attendants seemed to be shocked both by the information and the lack of any attempt to counter or explain those claims on the part of the Ukrainian diplomats.

For the original article from Euractiv.com, please click here.

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