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Ditching Integrity: US college sports in crisis

Before the American Civil War (1861-65), every state in the Confederacy had stringent laws forbidding anyone to teach slaves reading and writing. In North Carolina, it was a crime to distribute books or pamphlets to slaves. After emancipation, and well into the mid-20th century, schools remained segregated in both the North and South either by […]

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Know your contractors: transparent ownership reduces corruption

Procurement is at the heart of the work that the World Bank and other international development banks do. Countries borrow from these multilateral organisations to develop the public works and services their citizens need: such as healthcare, education, sanitation and infrastructure. Through public procurement, countries use the borrowed funds to acquire expertise, labour and supplies […]

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Deutsche Bank settlement: does the punishment fit the crime?

Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay a record US$2.5 billion in fines to US and UK authorities after one of its subsidiaries pleaded guilty to wire fraud for its role in manipulating LIBOR. This is more than your everyday bank scandal: LIBOR has an impact on millions of people, if not billions […]

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Welcome to Transparency International’s new ‘Corruption in Sport Initiative’

There are few people on earth that are unaware of the magnitude of sport as a global industry, with revenues larger than China’s military budget or the nominal GDP of more than two-thirds of the world’s countries. Almost all of us play a part in it as participants, spectators or tax-payers. And yet, despite its […]

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Give us our daily scandal

When Transparency International announces the results of the Corruption Perceptions Index in December and Italy performs badly again, there will always be at least one commentator who feigns surprise. How could it happen? Italy has the same score as Bulgaria and Senegal again? The index must be wrong.’ The writer unquestionably accepts the scores for […]

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Bribery: ‘redesign public services to cut risk’

Paying bribes to access basic services is rife worldwide: our research shows that globally, it affects the lives of more than one in four people. Bribery that takes place between citizens and officials is illegal and bad for society. It’s an unjust cost for taxpayers to bear, denying people their right to access necessities such […]

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Measuring development: why statistics matter

Co-written by Tom Wheeler, Conflict and Security Advisor for Saferworld Last week in New York the United Nations Statistical Commission met to discuss what indicators it can use to measure the new set of development targets that the UN will adopt in September to follow up on the Millennium Development Goals. This is important because […]

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Chile must reform political party financing laws

The timing couldn’t be better. The Chilean Congress is debating much-needed changes to the laws governing party political finances just as charges were formally made against two high-profile businesspeople for allegedly using fake receipts to fund Chile’s opposition party, the Independent Democratic Union in 2013. Several other former politicians, public officials and businesspeople have also […]

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The power of a question in El Salvador

Transparency laws mean nothing if they are not applied, and it sometimes takes brave citizens and active civil society organisations to make sure that they are. In El Salvador, the anti-corruption legal advice centre operated by FUNDE, our chapter in the country, is just over a year-and-a-half old and has already made a name for […]

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‘It has become more difficult to be corrupt in China’

In a blog published by the Bertelsmann Transformation Index, China expert Christian Goebel speaks about Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign and how it is helping transform China from collectivist one-party rule to a one-person authoritarian system. In Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), China is among the countries with the largest decline in points, despite a […]

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