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Corporate compliance key to corruption prevention (Opinion).   The upholding of corporate compliance serves as a sign that state losses will not be considered a criminal act of corruption. Meanwhile, a breach of corporate compliance serves as a red flag, based on which a court is likely to rule that state losses are criminal acts of corruption. Sechabudin and Imelda Napitupulu/The Jakarta Post :  https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2019/07/25/corporate-compliance-key-to-corruption-prevention.html   NACC panel looks to make listing assets more transparent.  Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has formed a panel to improve its asset declaration form to improve transparency, the commission's secretary-general Worawit Sukboon says, indicating that the form needs to be revised to address several concerns raised by people required to submit their assets and liabilities, as well as complaints by critics in the wake of a luxury watch ...

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Stop bribery and Corruption, says PNG PM Marape.   Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants bribery to stop in all walk of life in his country. The Prime Minister appeals to the public, company personnel, government officers and anyone to stop bribery and corruption. Mr. Marape says, he will setup special bribery and corruption unit through the Ombudsman and Police Force to fight bribery and corruption in the country.  https://news.pngfacts.com/2019/07/stop-bribery-and-corruption-says-png-pm.html Road-building spree in Papua New Guinea threatens environment, communities and economy.  A huge road-building scheme in Papua New Guinea could imperil some of the largest, biologically richest and culturally most diverse forests on the planet, says an international research team led by James Cook University in Australia. https://phys.org/news/2019-07-road-building-spree-papua-guinea-threatens.html   FIJI: Former TL...

Privatization Increases Corruption (Opinion).  “Statistical analysis of International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities on 141 developing countries from 1982 to 2014 has found that requiring privatization of SOEs has undermined anti-corruption efforts.” Jomo Kwame Sundaram/Inter Press Service:  http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/07/privatization-increases-corruption/   Probe looms in Microsoft case.   The Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand’s secretary-general, Mana Nimitmongkol, urges the National Anti-Corruption Commission to act, in response to reports that Microsoft agreed to pay about US$16.6 million (about 512 million baht) to settle a charge brought against it by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over kickbacks to government officials paid out by its executives in Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Turkey. Kornchanok Raksaseri/Bangkok Post :  https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1718255/probe-loom...

Top Three Challenges and Good Practices in Anti-Corruption (Blog).   “Answering what are the main three challenges in fragile and conflict-affected states and developing countries was not easy; our experience is that corruption dynamics differ greatly from country to country, and across sectors.” Diana Chigas and Cheyanne Scharbatke-Church/Tufts University:  https://sites.tufts.edu/ihs/top-three-challenges-and-good-practices-in-anti-corruption/   Public access to info: Planned archives law alarms civil society.  Myanmar’s government is proposing a new law on storing records and archives which critics fear will restrict public access to state information. Thompson Chau/Myanmar Times: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/public-access-info-planned-archives-law-alarms-civil-society.html   Power Dept SDO gets 5-yr jail in graft case.   In India, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Rakesh Singh has awarded five-ye...

China to embed anti-corruption officers in BRI projects.   The Chinese Communist party’s top graft inspector, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), plans to expand its anti-corruption campaign overseas by embedding officers in countries participating in China’s global infrastructure scheme the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China Economic Review: https://chinaeconomicreview.com/china-to-embed-anti-corruption-officers-in-bri-projects/   Tackling beneficial ownership: MACC wants provision to identify real owners.   It's vital for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to have its own provision on beneficial ownership in the MACC Act 2009 to identify real owners of businesses or properties to further eradicate corruption. Currently, there were provisions on beneficial ownership but it is under other legislations, such as the Companies Act and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2001 (AMLA). Hemananthani Sivanandam/The Star: ...

‘ACC probing graft allegations against 10-15 ruling party men’.  Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been dealing with corruption allegations against about a dozen of the ruling party men, the commission’s Chairman Iqbal Mahmood said, although he did not disclose what level of the ruling party they belong to. The Daily Star: https://www.thedailystar.net/politics/acc-probing-graft-allegations-against-10-15-ruling-party-men-1774309   Thailand’s anti-corruption hotline receives over 5,000 complaints in past two years.   912 complaints were lodged against state officials for misconduct and corrupt practices and forwarded to the National Anti-Corruption Commission for further investigation, of which 842 cases were resolved. The other 4,161 complaints were more about people’s well-being and hardship. National News Bureau of Thailand/Thailand Business News: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/politics/74711-...

Thailand and the OECD advance cooperation: Launch of the Integrity Review of Thailand Phase 2 and Capacity Building workshop on Public Ethics.   Three years after the start of the Integrity Review of Thailand, the Thai government is continuing its commitment to strengthen public integrity policies with a series of activities, including a second review phase under the OECD-Thai Country Programme, covering corruption risk management, international control and auditing, as well as integrity safeguards in decision-making processes and transparency in policy formulation. OECD: https://www.oecd.org/site/adboecdanti-corruptioninitiative/Thailand_and_the_OECD_advance_co-operation.pdf   DPR deputy chairman Taufik Kurniawan gets 6 years for bribery.  The Semarang Corruption Court has sentenced Indonesia’s House of Representatives deputy speaker and senior National Mandate Party (PAN) politician Taufik Kurniawan to six years in prison for bribery in a case conn...