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Reconstruction in Italy: We need transparency and monitoring activities 

It’s true, “Italians do their best in moments of emergency.” Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said it after the earthquake that devastated central Italy on 24 August. Italy’s President echoed the Prime Minister and we all tell it to ourselves every time that the images remind us that we are a country that rolls up […]

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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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Europe, Central Asia and the state of corruption in 2014: the gold standard?

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that out of 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index, the once great economic hope of many – Turkey – suffered one of the biggest drops in score (down five points to 45 out of 100 on a scale where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 very […]

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Moldova: time to tackle corruption

Moldova is a small land-locked country of 3.5 million people in the heart of Europe and, amid all the turmoil in neighbouring Ukraine, we will be going to the polls on 30 November. Given our position, our large Russian-speaking population and our dependence on Russian gas, this election may determine how far Moldova can progress […]

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Corruption and banking: forex heralds an important change in rhetoric

This week’s announcement about the rigging of the foreign exchange markets marks one significant change: at last, the media and the Chancellor are using the word corruption to describe this behaviour. Today we take tough action to clean up corruption.” – UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne Since the financial crisis started in 2008, banks have been fined […]

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The hard business of easy access

News of the arrest of 11 people, including high-ranking public officials, on suspicions of corruption in the issuing of so-called golden visas rocked Portugal this weekend. Officials stand accused of having taken bribes to supply residency permits to preferred millionaire foreign “investors”, revealing just one of the many problems with “Golden Visa” programmes that must […]

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Speaking up for Greek whistleblowers

A passionate antiquities specialist, K. blew the whistle on malpractice he witnessed on a restoration site. The result? He was called to account and has continued to suffer retaliation since. Sophia Ioannou explains what happened – and why urgent action is needed to protect K. and others who speak up against corruption. K.’s story It […]

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5 women who inspire YOU

All this week in the run up to International Women’s Day on 8 March, we’ve been celebrating female corruption fighters from across the world and asking YOU to share the names of women who have motivated you to stand up for justice and demand accountability at #WomenAgainstCorruption. From hard-hitting magistrates to celebrities and indefatigable rights […]

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Eu to freeze corrupt assets from Ukraine

Corruption has been at the heart of the Ukrainian political system for years. According to the latest Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine scored 25 out of 100, making it the lowest scoring country in Europe. The Global Corruption Barometer found that 74 percent of Ukrainians said public sector corruption is a serious problem. 47 percent said their government is entirely run by a few big entities acting in their own interest.

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Slovenia: ‘Women’s voices must be louder’

Saturday 8 March is International Women’s Day, and to mark the occasion we’re celebrating women corruption fighters across the world! All this week we’ll be interviewing some of the many remarkable women who fight corruption in our movement, and on Friday we’ll be profiling the women who spur YOU on to stand up against injustice. […]

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