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Whistleblowing in Greece: an alternative to silence

By on 8 May 2013 in Europe and Central Asia, Whistleblowing

In September 2012, the US Internal Revenue Service awarded Bradley Birkefeld with US$104 million, as he provided prosecutors with detailed information about the “consultating services” that UBS AG offered to rich clients, thus enabling tax evasion. Within two months, new legislation on whistleblowers’ protection for federal employees came up by the US President Barack Obama. [...]

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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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Women’s day: South Africa’s corruption crusader

By on 8 March 2013 in Africa and Middle East, Human rights, Whistleblowing

To ring in International Women’s Day on 8 March, Transparency International is featuring woman corruption fighters around the world. Thuli Madonsela is one of these women. She speaks in whispering tones and is always immaculately dressed. When she walks into a room and begins speaking, people sit up and listen. Fearless and resolute, this is [...]

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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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They took lavish foreign “research” trips: whistleblowing in Japan

By on 12 February 2013 in Whistleblowing

Hello, my name is Aki Wakabayashi from Japan.  I am a journalist, whistleblower and Executive Director of TI Japan. Let me tell you the story about how I blew a whistle on the waste of tax money by public servants in Japan. Before turning to journalism, I spent 10 years working for a government-supported labor [...]

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A year of corruption-busting in South Africa

By on 7 February 2013 in Africa and Middle East, Anti-corruption movement, Politics and government, Whistleblowing, Young people

Exactly a year ago, in the clinical hall which once housed an infamous women’s prison, South Africa’s Corruption Watch was born. The imposing space was packed to capacity with political heavyweights, anti-apartheid luminaries, journalists and human rights activists who had come to welcome the launch of the first civil society watchdog of its kind in [...]

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Reaching a tipping point: the fight to beat match fixing

By on 5 February 2013 in Education, Sport, Whistleblowing

News released yesterday by Europol, the European police organisation, that football is the target of alleged widespread match fixing should come as no surprise. But the match fixing allegations, involving 15 countries, hundreds of games and more than $2.7 million in pay offs to players and officials (mostly originating in Asia), is shocking. What’s the [...]

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Year of the whistleblower?

By on 15 January 2013 in Whistleblowing

Whistleblowers and the people and organisations that support them have been making waves  and making news for decades. Finally, they’re making laws. Over the past two years, many countries throughout the world have passed new or strengthened existing laws to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, and to help ensure that their efforts to disclosure corruption, fraud and other [...]

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Haiti’s hard road to recovery

By on 12 January 2013 in Accountability, Aid, Americas, People power, Poverty and development, Whistleblowing

In the three years since the devastating earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed much of Haiti’s infrastructure we have had to contend with two cyclones, a cholera epidemic and a drought that currently threatens our food security. No wonder Haitians and donors are suffering from reconstruction fatigue when too often the small [...]

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Cleaning up public procurement in the Czech Republic

By on 9 January 2013 in Accountability, Europe and Central Asia, Politics and government, Whistleblowing

When the phone rang, it was clear the caller was scared. He worked in the government, he said. He had information on a huge public tender that he needed to share. He had tried to complain to his superiors about the bidding process, but they had rebuffed his allegations. Now he wanted to speak out, [...]

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