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#offshoreleaks: 21st Century Journalism at its best

By on 4 April 2013 in Access to information, Accountability, Asset recovery, Cost of Corruption, Politics and government, Whistleblowing

Around 260 Gigabytes of data from ten tax havens, 2.5 million documents, 130.000 persons from 170 countries concerned – a mega coup. But some questions are still to be answered. Today’s releases regarding #offshoreleaks include everything one can expect from good journalism in the 21st century: Collaboration: 84 journalists worked on the story, coordinated by [...]

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Transparency International on the road of technology

By on 4 April 2013 in Access to information, Anti-corruption movement, People power, Politics and government, Technology

US transparency activists taking part in a meeting of staff from Transparency International’s legal advice centres have written about the use of technology to fight corruption. This post was originally published in the Sunlight Foundation‘s blog and is authored by Júlia Keseru. Great news for the open government movement: Transparency International, one of the key international [...]

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Oil money in Gabon and Sierra Leone: from mirage to reality?

By on 27 March 2013 in Access to information, Africa and Middle East, Human rights, Oil and gas, Politics and government, Poverty and development, Private sector

Many of the world’s poorest countries by per capita income are actually some of the richest in terms of natural resources. Trouble is, this wealth doesn’t reach citizens who, by rights, own the resources. That is why the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) was started in 2002: to get countries to agree to publish information [...]

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La transparence des revenus au Gabon et en Sierra Leone: du mirage à la réalité?

By on 27 March 2013 in Access to information, Africa and Middle East, Human rights, Oil and gas, Politics and government, Poverty and development, Private sector

Par Lavina Banduah, Directrice exécutive de Transparency Sierra Leone et Marc Ona, Coordinateur de Publiez ce que vous payez Gabon. Beaucoup des pays les plus pauvres de la planète de par le revenu par habitant sont en fait parmi les plus riches en termes de ressources naturelles. Le problème est que cette richesse ne profite [...]

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Horse meat scandal: food transparency in focus

By on 21 February 2013 in Access to information, Accountability, Europe and Central Asia, Politics and government, Private sector

In January, Irish food inspectors revealed they had found horse DNA in products labeled as beef being sold by British supermarkets in the country. The revelation quickly led to more discoveries around Europe, with some products that claimed to be cow meat actually found to be 100 per cent horse. There has been a rash [...]

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Fighting corruption in Italy is an uphill struggle

By on 18 February 2013 in Access to information, Financial Markets, Politics and government, Private sector, Whistleblowing

The current scandal of Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), Italy’s third biggest bank, is a good illustration of how a lack of transparency negatively affects the fight against corruption in Italy. In general, ordinary citizens have little means to monitor and evaluate what goes on in either the public or private sectors. This is [...]

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Hungry for results: A new crusade in Mexico and its need for transparency and accountability

By on 15 February 2013 in Access to information, Americas, Politics and government, Poverty and development

This blog post was written by Paola Palacios, Programme Coordinator of the Initiative for the Institutional Strengthening of Social Programmes (IPRO) and Monserrat Hernández, Project Consultant for IPRO at Transparencia Mexicana, the National Chapter of Transparency International in Mexico. Mexico is the second biggest economy in Latin America and growing steadily. Yet, despite its economic [...]

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Spain’s scandals indicate need for reform

By on 25 January 2013 in Access to information, Politics and government

Following days of intense public and media pressure, Spain’s governing Popular Party finally announced that it will investigate the financial activities of former treasurer, Luís Bárcenas, who the national court (La Audiencia Nacional) allege has accumulated an unexplained €22 million in Swiss bank accounts. On top of this, media reports state that during Bárcenas’ time [...]

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La declaración patrimonial de Peña Nieto, una oportunidad perdida

By on 24 January 2013 in Access to information, Americas, Politics and government

This text was originally published in CNN Mexico. La declaración patrimonial es una figura que busca recuperar algo de la confianza que los ciudadanos tuvieron alguna vez en la clase política. Me parece que expresa, legal y simbólicamente, la oferta sincera de un funcionario de mantenerse honesto durante su gestión. La declaración patrimonial es preventiva: [...]

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“My CEO will tear off my head, if I suggest to him that we implement IATI.”

By on 17 January 2013 in Access to information

This text was crossposted from the Open Knowledge Foundation’s blog Open Aid. The author is Claudia Schwegmann. These were the precise words of a senior policy person of a big German NGO when I presented IATI some 18 months ago. In the past, reactions of other NGO representatives have been less drastic but still very clearly [...]

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