Tag Archives | arab spring

Three reasons why attacking Egypt’s top auditor is bad news

Putting Egypt’s top auditor on trial sends a clear message: the Egyptian government is waging a war. Not against corruption but against those who fight against it. When President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi came to power in 2013, he made fighting corruption a top priority; “There should be full trust in the monitoring bodies and their […]

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Observing elections: Tunisia’s I Watch breaks new ground

In a month’s time Tunisia will take an important step towards its democratic transition. What most Tunisians have been waiting for will finally happen: the first free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections after the drafting of the new constitution.  Following the heady experience of the Arab Spring nearly four years ago, holding these elections […]

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Libya’s Top 5 Corruption Scandals

Renewed factional fighting in Libya has claimed more than 150 lives in the past two weeks. The oil rich country is on the verge of becoming a failed state with a powerless central government. This is the haunting legacy of Muammar Gaddafi’s corrupt regime that has left the country in a state of constant violence […]

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Three steps to (start) recovering stolen assets

It takes a long time and great deal of good will, legal procedures and paper work to return stolen assets to the countries where they belong. In April 2014, Switzerland commenced the return of US$40 million of Tunisian assets linked to the former Zine El Abidine Ben Ali regime, which had been frozen in the […]

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Money up in the air? Corruption in Yemen’s gas sector

Hundreds of Yemenis protested on the streets of Sanaa against the government’s ongoing negotiations with French oil company Total about the pricing of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is one of the main sources of the country’s wealth. Protestors claimed that Yemenis have lost hundreds of millions of dollars of potential earnings from the country’s […]

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Using technology to involve Tunisians in new constitution

As the first Arab country to have a constitution drafted back in 1861, Tunisia is again at the forefront of change as it takes its final steps in its democratic transition. The country that led the Arab Spring revolutions in the region is now – more than 150 years later – almost ready to adopt […]

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Rediscovering the power of trust: the case of education in Tunisia

“I know I have a problem. It is all over the newspapers, everybody talks about it, but what can I do? I have no evidence. Can you bring me some evidence, please? Even better, just let me know what I shall do.” – A minister of education during an OECD integrity assessment about efforts to fight […]

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CPI 2013: Crackdown on Middle Eastern civil society must stop

In the Middle East and North Africa, tear gas, bullets, office raids and imprisonment have been the hallmarks of state and non-state actions against civil society activists fighting corruption. The Bahraini government proposes a draconian NGO law; while Egyptian, Jordanian and other countries’ NGO laws continue to restrict NGO registration, freedom to operate, and international […]

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New efforts to kill off the UK Bribery Act

This post was originally published in TI-UK‘s blog. Is there an assault being mounted to undermine the Bribery Act – before it has had a chance to take effect? Anecdotal evidence suggests this is the case – one visible sign is a recent letter to the FT (FT Letters, March 18th). I have some sympathy for the concerns expressed […]

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Corruption: An ongoing revolution in the Arab world

The Arab world witnessed unprecedented changes with the toppling of dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya last year. The Arab Spring served to transform the anti-corruption issue from the responsibility of a few, to the preoccupation of many. In most countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, trust in government remains low, with […]

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