11 Jan 2012

Ti Slovakia Launches Public Procurement Portal

Transparency International's national chapter in Slovakia has launched a new online platform that discloses information on public procurement procedures since 2005. The website, called "Open Public Procurement", gathers data on more than 30,000 contracts worth more than 22 billion euros.

11 Jan 2012

the Use of Social Media to Fight Corruption

An article by Giulio Quaggiotto, published on UNDPs Voices from Eurasia, discusses the use of social media to fight corruption and promote transparency. Mr. Quaggiotto refers to projects presented at a regional conference organized by UNDP in Belgrade earlier this month and raises some important questions about how these platforms can be used most effectively and what lessons can be learned from previous initiatives.

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11 Jan 2012

National Integrity System Assessment for Czech Republic Launched

Transparency International's national chapter in the Czech Republic released recently a National Integrity System assessment showing how "healthy" the main governance institutions in the country are, considering their resources, accountability, transparency and role in fighting corruption. The study showed that corruption in public procurement remains one of the main problems to be tackled.

04 Jan 2012

Yemeni Public Raises Voice Against Corruption

An article by Abubakr al-Shamahi discusses how political tension seems to be increasing recently in Yemen, where the past weeks have seen demonstrations escalate onto strikes that have managed to create great pressure on the government to combat corruption more strongly.

04 Jan 2012

Efforts to Increase Transparency in Brazil

In 2011, Brazilian politics was tainted by the resignation of six ministers accused of corruption. However, the same year also had important developments toward increasing transparency, such as the passing of an Access to Information law, Brazils leading position in the launch of the Open Government Partnership and civil society initiatives to disseminate public information.

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04 Jan 2012

Vietnamese Reporter Arrested After Exposing Police Corruption

The journalist Nguyen Van Khuong has been arrested in Ho Chi Minh City under charges of bribery, after exposing corruption within the traffic police in the newspaper Tuoi Tre. Khuong is known for his investigative work and has published many articles uncovering corruption in the police. He shall remain in custody for four months, until the investigation on his case is concluded.

21 Dec 2011

Initiatives to Increase Transparency in Elections in Latin America

An article by Marta Erquicia on Transparency Internationals blog talks about civil society initiatives to monitor elections in four Latin American countries in the last months. The projects focused on the use of new technologies and social media to provide information to the public and collect reports of electoral violations.

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21 Dec 2011

Lokpal Bill Approved by Indian Cabinet

Indias Cabinet approved yesterday a bill to establish an ombudsman body to fight corruption in the country. The bill shall be presented in Parliament tomorrow and is expected to pass before the end of the current legislative session. However, anti-corruption activists and the opposition questioned the bill's provisions and claimed that it will create a toothless agency.

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14 Dec 2011

Russian Ngo Launches Anti-Corruption Program

 

The Russian organization Committee for Fighting Corruption" has developed a new program entitled "World Without Corruption", which is focused on the collaboration between civil society and the private sector towards strengthening the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) until 2020. The program has received the collaboration and support from international experts and activists and is being implemented within the scope of the UN Global Compact network in Russia.

 

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12 Dec 2011

Should Monitoring of Transparency Be Kept Secret? – by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi and Christopher Walker

In a laudable effort to raise awareness about corruption and to mobilize to combat it, the United Nations General Assembly designated December 9 as International Anticorruption Day. A UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), which came into force in December 2005, has been ratified by some 140 countries to date. Given the turbulent economic climate and increasingly sour mood around the globe in developing and developed countries alike toward venal political leadership and business, meaningful anticorruption efforts can have an important salutary impact in giving citizens a stake in their governance and reducing cynicism.

09 Dec 2011

Massive Citizen Reporting Uncovers Electoral Violations in Russia

An article by Gregory Asmolov published on Global Voices emphasizes the role of citizens in uncovering numerous irregularities in the Russian Parliamentary elections last Sunday. According to the author, the use of technology made it possible to massively document evidence of election fraud and to question the legitimacy of the results.

09 Dec 2011

Czech Paper Launches Petition for Tougher Stance on Corruption

The Czech tabloid Blesk, one of the most popular daily publications in the country, has launched a petition online demanding law enforcement agencies to conduct tougher investigations on corruption cases. The newspaper also published a list of the 20 most corrupt Czech politicians, allegedly based on a poll with 50,000 people.

09 Dec 2011

Mobile Legal Advice Centers Reach out to Rural Areas in Africa

Advocacy and Legal Advice Centers (ALACs) have become a central point of Transparency Internationals national chapters' activities in many countries. Their main objective is to empower victims of corruption and help them to make use of their legal rights. Some chapters in Africa have now taken a further step to make these initiatives more effective, by organizing mobile ALACs to reach remote locations where access to justice is much limited.

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06 Dec 2011

Civil Societys Achievements Against Corruption in 2011

An article by Christina zur Nedden, from the Communications Department at Transparency International, summarizes important achievements by civil society in fighting corruption during 2011 and highlights that many events this year have contributed to bringing corruption more strongly on the international agenda.

06 Dec 2011

Anti-Corruption Activism in India on the Rise

Anti-corruption activists in India are becoming more and more creative and finding original - and unconventional - ways to express their discontent with the situation in the country, where several corruption cases have been uncovered this year and the government stills hesitates to adopt an anti-corruption law.

06 Dec 2011

Ti Launches 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index

Transparency International (TI) released the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index  last week, which measured the perceived level of corruption in 183 countries and territories based on data from 17 international surveys. The index scores each country on a scale from zero (most corrupt) to 10 (least corrupt). According to the results, two thirds of the countries […]
22 Nov 2011

Most Countries Disrespect Their Own Freedom of Information Laws

A story published by the Associated Press (AP) last week revealed that most countries with Freedom of Access to Information laws do not follow them properly. In a test with over 100 countries with such legislation, more than half failed to provide the requested information and only 14 disclosed the data within the legal deadline. […]
22 Nov 2011

TI Launches Portal on Measuring Corruption

Transparency International has launched GATEway, a new online portal dedicated to documenting and sharing existing knowledge on corruption assessment. The platform offers a collection of materials on different methodologies developed and applied to measure and analyze corruption. The objective of this initiative is to provide civil society actors, government officials and researchers with easy access […]
22 Nov 2011

Kosova Democratic Institute Publishes Report on Political Finance

The Kosova Democratic Institute (KDI) published earlier this month the report entitled Legislation and Practices in the Financing of Political Parties, developed as part of Transparency International’s CRINIS research project on political finance. The report highlights that finances of political parties in Kosovo continue to be characterized by lack of transparency and accountability, and that […]
14 Nov 2011

Report Exposes Dimension of Corruption in Ben Ali’s Regime

A report presented last Friday by a National Investigation Committee in Tunisia revealed details about evidence of corruption and misappropriation by members of Ben Ali’s regime. The document concluded that corruption was widespread across state agencies, ministries and even the media. According to Neji Baccouche, a legal expert who presented the Committee’s findings, around 5,000 […]
14 Nov 2011

TI Russia to Monitor Corruption in State Enterprises

Transparency International’s National Chapter in Russia announced today that it will be assessing state companies in the next months, in order to verify whether anti-corruption measures have been put in place in those institutions and also whether they have been effective or not. According to Elena Panfilova, head of the organization, their analysis will also […]
14 Nov 2011

Report on Corrupt Money Flows Shows the Need for Increased Corporate Transparency

The Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) from the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published on Monday the report The Puppet Masters: How the Corrupt Use Legal Structures to Hide Stolen Assets and What to Do About It. The study is based on an analysis of 150 grand corruption cases […]
14 Nov 2011

TI Slovakia and Fair-Play Alliance Launch Open Contracts Portal

Transparency International’s national chapter in Slovakia and the civil society organization Fair-Play Alliance have launched on Monday the portal Open Contracts, which brings together all available information on public contracts on one single platform accessible to citizens. According to TI Slovakia, the organization has pressured the government to publish data on state contracts, and although […]
14 Nov 2011

Us Accuses Equatorial Guinea’s Minister of Corruption

The government of the United States has filed civil complaints requesting the forfeiture of $70 million in assets owned by Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue (pictured here), a minister in Equatorial Guinea and son of the country’s President. According to the forfeiture complaints, filed in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Teodorin Obiang’s assets originate from misappropriation […]
14 Nov 2011

Report Stresses Civil Society’s Role in Fighting Corruption

The non-governmental organization Tearfund launched this week the report