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Seven pathbreaking teams will advance public procurement reforms to increase access, competition and participation with the support of Lift.  “Seven projects from France, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, and the United States have been selected to advance procurement reforms as part of the Open Contracting Partnership’s impact accelerator program Lift... Over the next 18 months, the Open Contracting Partnership will support the selected teams as they open and strengthen their procurement systems and build their team capacity to make procurement more community-centered and effective for all.” Open Contracting Partnership: https://www.open-contracting.org/news/seven-pathbreaking-teams-will-advance-public-procurement-reforms-lift/       MACC: Malaysia needs law on beneficiary ownership to fight graft.  “Malaysia needs to have a law on beneficiary ownership on top of the existing regulations…introduced by the Co...

COVID-19 & Corruption: Latest Trackers, Articles, and Resources.  “The staff of the Anti-Corruption & Governance Center at CIPE has compiled this list of recent publications and resources to help the global anti-corruption community, and is updated monthly. The most recent entries are placed near the top and extend through the last thirty days. We welcome your suggestions for additional articles, reports, and resources on this issue.” Kai Bernier-Chen/Center for international Private Enterprise: https://acgc.cipe.org/business-of-integrity-blog/covid-19-corruption-latest-trackers-articles-and-resources/     Corruption can be beaten: Gordon hails conviction of BI execs in P50 M extortion case.  “[Philippines Senator Richard Gordon] made the remark after the Sandiganbayan convicted two former senior officials of the Bureau of Immigration and a businessman on separate charges of plunder and graft for extorting P50 million [appr...

Mekong Development Zones Facilitating Illicit Activities: Report.  “The [new report from C4ADS, a U.S.-based research organization], which analyzes 110 economic development zones (EDZs) in the five lower Mekong nations – Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar – found that while these zones have stoked economic growth, corruption, opacity, and weak regulatory frameworks have undermined their benefits.” Sebastian Strangio/The Diplomat: https://thediplomat.com/2021/06/mekong-development-zones-facilitating-illicit-activities-report/       How Noynoy Aquino delivered on 5 major promises (Opinion).   “Aquino’s ‘social contract with the people’ covered corruption, infrastructure, economy, poverty, education…Aquino served as the Philippines’ 15th president, from June 2010 to June 2016. He died on Thursday, June 24, at the age of 61.” Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler: https://www....

How audit trail can lead to increased compliance and transparency.  “Once having an integrated and secure audit trail in place, collected and aggregated logs can be used for different business purposes i.e. regulatory compliance that ensures your recorded logs comply with existing stadnards and regulations, business analysis that helps you analyze over gain or loss, and data integration that allows you to recontstruct the data.” Kapil Rana/Economic Times: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/legal/how-audit-trail-can-lead-to-increased-compliance-and-transparency/articleshow/83659127.cms   Five Years Later: Four Lessons We Learned from the London Anti-Corruption Summit (Blog).   “It’s been five years since the United Kingdom hosted the London Anti-Corruption Summit, where 43 governments made over 600 pledges to tackle corruption... The designers of the upcoming US-hosted Summit for Democracy can send a clear message that a...

Announcing the 2021 Resource Governance Index: Assessments of Oil, Gas and Mining Governance in 18 Countries.  “The composite or [Resource Governance Index] score is made up of three components. Two measure key characteristics of the extractives sector – value realization and revenue management – and a third captures the broader context of governance — the enabling environment… the 2021 Resource Governance Index will provide key change-makers with the tools to advocate for more transparency, accountability and drive reform in the resource governance sector.” Natural Resources Governance Institute: https://resourcegovernance.org/blog/2021-resource-governance-index-assessments-oil-gas-mining-governance-in-18-countries     Ex-Japan trade minister Sugawara fined 400,000 yen over gift scandal.  “Tokyo court has fined former trade minister Isshu Sugawara 400,000 yen ($3,600) for sending money and flowers to voters i...

World Whistleblowers Day 2021: speaking up against corruption is crucial for a just world, and we’re here to help (Statement).  “World Whistleblowers Day on 23 June is an occasion for us to celebrate the courageous individuals who come forward to report corruption…We’ll also keep on pushing for legal protection, so that whistleblowers can safely expose and help prevent corruption, ultimately building integrity across our societies.” Transparency International: https://www.transparency.org/en/news/world-whistleblowers-day-2021-speaking-up-against-corruption-crucial-just-world-alacs-can-help     Improving Accountability Around The World Through Accruals.   “Corruption and cronyism has been hitting headlines around the world off the back of dubious procurement practices and a loosening of scrutiny brought about by the emergency situation. In this context, transparent accounts that support good decision making, accounta...

Departure of U.S. Contractors Poses Myriad Problems for Afghan Military (Commentary).  “Contractors in Afghanistan have long operated under a system that is susceptible to corruption and mismanagement. Transferring their payments through another entity — in this case the Afghan government — is bound to make the contracts even more open to charges of corruption, lawmakers and independent analysts warn.” Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt/The New York Times: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/departure-u-contractors-poses-myriad-151003866.html     SFRA: A mental model for front-line reformers (Blog).  “ We have tried to codify this into a pragmatic mental model that front-line reformers can use to develop better anti-corruption strategies. Its purpose is deliberately limited: to enable context-specific thinking about which particular corruption issues could be addressed to build up a set of feasible strategy o...