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Showing posts from October, 2015

[ap-intact] COMMENTARY: Changing physical settings of govt offices might influence corrupt behavior

"Corrupt transactions do not merely 'take place' – they take place in a place, a specific place at a specific time: At customs authorities and land registrars, at hospital wards, police road-stops, school headmaster offices, or the offices of social benefits agencies. The fact that most forms of corruption occur in physical locations may seem both obvious and unimportant, but in fact there may be some promising ways to modify the physical settings for government-citizen interactions that would make various kinds of corruption less likely to occur (or easier to detect and remedy)." Read the post by Dieter Zinnbauer, in the Global Anticorruption Blog. http://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2015/10/08/guest-post-promoting-ambient-accountability-with-architecture-and-design/

[ap-intact] COMMENTARY: Has the Internet cut corruption in the Philippines?

"Many Filipinos and Asians now are getting more vocal about their frustrations regarding government (inefficiencies, wastes, corruption, plunder, etc.), corporate monopolies and duopolies, politicians and/or political parties, and so on. One of the explanations is that people have more information and have increased access to the Internet and events happening in their country and abroad." More from Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr., in BusinessWorld. http://bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=has-the-internet-cut-corruption-in-the-philippines&id=117660

[ap-intact] PAPER: Asking What the People Want - Using Mobile Phone Surveys to Identify Citizen Priorities

By Benjamin Leo and Robert Morello ABSTRACT Using an experimental design, we assess the feasibility of interactive voice recognition (IVR) surveys for gauging citizens’ development priorities. Our project focuses on four low-income countries (Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe), which exhibit significant differences in mobile penetration rates and linguistic fractionalization. In this paper, we consider sensitivities of using a single mobile phone-based survey instrument to solicit citizens’ development priorities for a host of actors operating within the country. We analyze whether people’s stated priorities change based on the specified executing actor, timeframe, or question format. A separate Center for Global Development (CGD) working paper provides detailed analysis on a range of methodological issues, including: survey design, implementation, sample weighting, response incentives, and national representativeness. We find that mobile phone-based approaches may be an ...

Wall Street Journal - Corruption Currents: Honduran Newspaper Closes After U.S. Allegations (28 Oct 2015)

Wall Street Journal - Corruption Currents: Honduran Newspaper Closes After U.S. Allegations (28 Oct 2015). By Samuel Rubenfeld. http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2015/10/28/corruption-currents-honduran-newspaper-closes-after-u-s-allegations/

Transparency International - Daily Corruption News (29 Oct 2015)

29 October 2015 Today's top story Global: Arab states pose 'critical' risk of defence corruption The Guardian (TI mention) Arab states that buy billions of dollars worth of weapons are at high risk of corruption and pose a continuing threat to regional security and stability, according to a new report by watchdog Transparency International. More news Global: FIFA chief blames Platini, England, U.S. for corruption probe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Australia: Australia rejects Amnesty's bribery allegations as 'slur' on border police Deutsche Welle China: China indicts former senior provincial official for graft Reuters Italy: 'Rome can't fight crime': Anti-corruption chief Agence France-Presse Romania: Court rules that Bucharest mayor charged with bribery, will be placed under house arrest Associated Press Blogs and opinion Global: Por un Gobierno Abierto (For an open government) El Universal (TI mention) Egypt: Egyptians expose corru...

Ethical Alliance Daily News (29 Oct 2015)

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United States: IBM faces probe of accounting practices by US regulators Published on Oct 29, 2015 11:30 pm     United States: United Nations Diplomat Corruption Case Presents Challenges Published on Oct 29, 2015 11:00 pm     Podcast: Regulatory Enforcement Around the World Published on Oct 29, 2015 10:30 pm     India: Arvind Kejriwal Asks Ministers to Submit Plan to Uproot Corruption Published on Oct 29, 2015 10:00 pm     Indonesia: Minister Rini Soemarno to be Questioned over Pelindo Graft Case Published on Oct 29, 2015 09:30 pm     Romania: Romanian Parliament approves prosecution of ex-minister suspected of bribery, money-laundering Published on Oct 29, 2015 09:00 pm     Egypt: 3 Irrigation Ministry officials hosed over 100K bribe Published on Oct 29, 2015 08:30 pm     Switzerland: HSBC whistleblower Falciani says won’t attend Swiss trial Published on Oct 29, 2015 08:00 pm     Keny...

[ap-intact] INFO: Sri Lanka anti-graft agency claims biggest catch yet

Sri Lanka's Bribery Commission apprehended three senior Custom officers while accepting a bribe of Rs. 125 million, reportedly the biggest detection in the country in terms of prevention of bribery and corruption. More from Upul Kumarapperuma, in The Sunday Leader. http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2015/10/25/greed-over-grievance/

[ap-intact] INFO: Report alleges massive illegal logging in Laos

According to a story in The Straits Times, a leaked report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) alleges "near epic-scale illegal logging in Laos, with virtually no law enforcement". More from Nirmal Ghosh, in The Straits Times. http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/report-reveals-plunder-of-lao-forests

[ap-intact] INFO: How big data will help us hold governments accountable

"In our post-Snowden age, a little paranoia about how our data are collected and used is natural. But what if we turned the tables, and big data became a way to hold governments accountable, instead?" More from Gian Volpicelli, in Wired UK. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-10/15/alex-pentland-wired-2015

[ap-intact] INFO: ‘Silence is too often the only safe option left’ – new UN report on sources and whistleblowers

Governments and international organizations are failing to ensure adequate protections to whistleblowers and sources of information, according to a new report by the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression. More in UN News Centre. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52339#.Vi7p-KRh0bE

[ap-intact] INFO: Iranian gov't backs public oversight of anti-corruption campaign

According to the Khabarfarsi news website, Iranian Minister of Justice Mostafa Pourmohammadi has said that the government supports public oversight of the fight against corruption. More in Tehran Times. http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=250335

[ap-intact] JOB OPPORTUNITIES: UNDP Lao PDR; UNDP Afghanistan

[Facilitator's note: Thank you to Nick Booth, Programme Advisor-Governance, Conflict Prevention, Access to Justice and Human Rights, UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub, for sharing this information. AP-INTACT shares this information strictly as a service to members. To apply or know more, you may click on the links below. Please do not send your query or application to AP-INTACT. AP-INTACT is not responsible for the accuracy of the posted information and is not involved in any way in the selection practices/decisions of the sponsoring organisation.] UNDP Lao - International Evaluator for Support Project for Implementation of Legal Sector Master Plan (SPLSMP) Deadline for application: 30 Oct 2015 . UNDP Lao PDR invites applications from qualified consultants in order to perform the mid-term evaluation of the SPLSMP. This evaluation should assess relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the project. It should assess what works and does not work and why, highlight intended and unintended pro...

[ap-intact] COMMENTARY: Rooting out military corruption - Korea JoongAng Daily editorial

"The country’s arms procurement program has seen one flop after another, from warships to aircraft. The [Board of Audit and Inspection] must continue with its investigation into all defense purchases to root out corruption and irregularities in arms dealings once and for all." Read the editorial by Korea JoongAng Daily. http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3010349&cloc=joongangdaily|home|online

[ap-intact] INFO: Australian company plotted with Iraq to take US$8m from UN humanitarian fund, court told

According to court testimony, Australia’s wheat exporter AWB allegedly colluded with Iraq under former leader Saddam Hussein to extract US$8-million from the United Nation’s oil-for-food program to pay off Iraqi debt. Read more from Australian Associated Press, in The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/19/awb-plotted-iraq-take-un-humanitarian-fund-court-australia

Ethical Alliance Daily News (27 Oct 2015)

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United States: Money Laundering Probe at Mexico Border Casts Cloud Over Rabobank Published on Oct 27, 2015 11:30 pm     Interview: A Holistic Approach to Third-Party Risk & Due Diligence Published on Oct 27, 2015 11:00 pm     United States: Ex-U.N. diplomat in bribe case likely faces more charges: U.S. prosecutor Published on Oct 27, 2015 10:30 pm     Vanuatu: For the first time, Vanuatu jails corrupt legislators Published on Oct 27, 2015 10:00 pm     United Kingdom: Terrorists funded through UK money laundering scheme Published on Oct 27, 2015 09:30 pm     China: Leak reveals China Cosco discipline chief’s despair over corruption, nepotism and failure to make profit Published on Oct 27, 2015 09:00 pm     India: Endorsement of corruption hallmark of Fadnavis government: Congress Published on Oct 27, 2015 08:30 pm     Iraq: Murdered Iraq Trade Ministry official was ab...