06 Jun 2013

Freedom of Information Law Amendment Restricts Access to Information in Hungary

Hungary has recently joined the Open Government Partnership, a step that was seen optimistically with regards to the government’s commitment to transparency, but recent moves by the Parliament to amend and restrict the scope of the country's Freedom of Information legislation raise serious concerns about a backlash in this process

23 May 2013

Global Integrity Innovation Fund Selects 5 Projects for Increased Transparency and Accountability

New innovation fund by Global Integrity offers individuals with brand-new approaches to promoting transparency and accountability an opportunity to implement and test their tools

21 May 2013

ANTICORRP 2nd General Meeting in Florence Discusses Project Developments

Researchers from ANTICORRP’s 21 consortium members met to present and discuss their activities and preliminary research results during the project’s first year, with the participation of leading scholars in the field that compose the project’s external Advisory Board. The next steps in the project and their expected contribution were also discussed

14 May 2013

ReStart Initiative Supports Innovative Projects in Eastern Europe

Since 2011, the ReStart Challenges initiative, organised by TechSoup Global, has been promoting competitions and selecting innovative projects based on the implementation of new technologies in fighting corruption and promoting transparency. The first edition took place in Romania and received applications on 145 project ideas, among which five projects were selected. Since then, other editions […]

07 May 2013

Online Initiatives Collect Reports of Bribery in Greece

New projects based on similar crowdsourcing platforms for bribe reporting are now being implemented in Greece, and seek to offer a clearer picture of where and how much bribery is actually taking place in citizens’ day-to-day life

02 May 2013

Russian Watchdog GOLOS Fined under Foreign Agents Law

Since it was signed in July 2012, the Russian law on foreign agents has raised much controversy. Its requirements that all organisations receiving funds from abroad register as foreign agents has been seen as a clear instrument to target and restrict the activities of civil society organisations and international donors in the country. The first concrete measures in this direction were seen already last September, when American development agency USAID was forced to leave the country. Earlier this year, several foreign NGOs have also been subject to raids in their offices. Now a fine imposed to independent election watchdog GOLOS indicates that the government’s actions based on this law continue to escalate

30 Apr 2013

SELDI Initiative Seeks to Strengthen Civil Society in Southeast Europe

The coalition aims to contribute to the wider civil society capacity to monitor, analyse and propose good governance and anti-corruption policy measures through the forming of a regional good governance and anti-corruption eco-system around the partnership coalition

25 Apr 2013

Corruption Watch Fosters Whistleblowing in South Africa

South African civil society organisation Corruption Watch has taken a main role in supporting whistleblowers, increasing the visibility of corruption cases, promoting freedom of information legislation and advocating for changes in legislation that increase corruption risks in the country

24 Apr 2013

Chilean Project Exposes Connections between Business and Politics

The platform Poderopedia offers journalists, researchers and interested citizens valuable information on the relationships between politicians, organisations and companies, helping them to identify cases of conflict of interest, favoritism and undue influence in Chilean politics

17 Apr 2013

Research Project Finds Signs of Political Influence in the Hungarian Public Procurement Market

Researchers at the Corvinus University of Budapest have examined market shares and contract volumes of public procurement contract winners in Hungary between 2009 and 2011 – their results point to significant changes in the companies most benefited by government contracts before and after the change of government in 2010

17 Apr 2013

Romania: 37 Medical Professionals Investigated for Embezzlement of Insurance Funds

In many countries that struggle with systemic corruption, basic public services such as education and health care are commonly affected by fraud schemes that siphon millions away from already underfunded services. A recent scandal in Romania illustrates how such schemes may take place, involving large criminal organisations of dozens of people seeking to divert public […]

15 Apr 2013

Discussion Paper from ANTICORRP Research Evaluates Corruption Risk in EU Member States

The discussion paper, prepared by the Hertie School of Governance for the ANTICORRP project, shows which EU member states perform best and worst in control of corruption, and where corruption risks are most alarming. As measures to improve anti-corruption efforts in these countries, the research emphasises the importance of reducing administrative resources for corruption and strengthening constraints in the form of increased audit capacity, judicial autonomy and monitoring by civil society

21 Mar 2013

New Report Assesses Changes in Anti-Corruption Policy in Russia under Medvedev Government

The report discusses how anti-corruption became more prominent in the political agenda of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, but despite the introduction of new legislation and transparency measures, concrete results are scarce, and the only major change seems to be increasing pressure from the population

10 Mar 2013

New Coalition against Corruption Monitors Government in Sri Lanka

Created by several segments of society, including academia, media and trade unions, the Sri Lankan Coalition against Corruption has committed to promoting transparency, monitoring government and exposing corrupt dealings

27 Feb 2013

New Book Shows Links between Politics and Business in Post-Revolution Georgia

A book recently published by Transparency International Georgia and journalist Paul Rimple describes the backdoor deals for ownership of key companies in Georgia after the Rose Revolution

15 Feb 2013

ERCAS Hosts Event on Transparency in Development Aid

The European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building (ERCAS), together with Transparency International (TI) Germany and the anti-poverty organisation ONE, hosted on 14 February 2013 a roundtable for the presentation and discussion of results of recent research on transparency and accountability in international development assistance. The study presented was conducted by former students of the […]

07 Feb 2013

U4 Papers Discuss Weaknesses in Anti-Corruption Policies

Recent publications on the U4 platform reveal important gaps in the design and evaluation of donor-funded anti-corruption programmes, and call for more systematic approaches for the planning and the assessment of implemented policies

29 Jan 2013

Parliament Watch: a New Platform Empowers Citizens to Participate in Politics

Starting as a source of information for citizens to monitor their MPs, this German project has now become a successful means of connecting representatives and voters. Now they have gone global, and are helping partners to replicate their positive experience in other countries

23 Jan 2013

New Research Confirms Old Tocqueville

A new article by Prof. Alina Mungiu-Pippidi brings new evidence to Tocqueville’s old thesis: civic engagement and capacity for collective action are, in fact, important determinants of good governance

21 Jan 2013

World Bank Publishes Financial Disclosure Law Library

The new online tool compiles hundreds of pieces of legislation from almost 180 countries and is a powerful source for researchers and policy makers. It also reveals that there is much room from improvement in the implementation of such legislation, especially regarding public access to the disclosed information

18 Dec 2012

Russian Farmer Publishes Own Independent Newspaper to Expose Corruption

650 km away from Moscow, a farmer turned investigative journalist runs an independent newspaper to uncover corruption in the local administration – and his readership is on the increase

12 Dec 2012

Ukrainian Coalition CHESNO Takes Stock of Campaign Achievements

Inspired by the Romanian Coalition for a Clean Parliament initiated in 2004 and later replicated in several countries, the CHESNO movement now closes its successful one-year long integrity campaign for this year’s elections. Their efforts won’t stop there, however: participants already started making plans for initiatives towards the next presidential election in 2015

07 Dec 2012

New Data Calls for New Agenda, Not Old

Results of global corruption surveys released in the last months by World Bank and Transparency International show that the anti-corruption global campaign has had disappointing impact in effectively curbing corruption in the world in the last fifteen years. Here is why and what we might want to do next.

05 Dec 2012

2012 Corruption Perceptions Index Launched

Transparency International (TI) has released today the latest version of its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which assesses 176 countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. Each country receives a score in a scale from 0 (high corruption) to 100 (low corruption) and a rank comparing its position to […]

04 Dec 2012

MANS Network Reports Electoral Abuses in Montenegro

The NGO MANS Network for Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector has published a report on irregularities that the organisation has uncovered in its monitoring of the last parliamentary elections in Montenegro, which took place on 14 October 2012. The problems described in the report refer largely to inconsistencies in the voter registry and to the […]