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Changing accountability mindsets: From workshops and reports to professors and imams

Working on accountability in difficult contexts, it does not take long to realise the key shortcomings of established approaches to these issues – expensive workshops are held, lengthy papers are written and complex logframes are completed, but little changes on the ground. Some donors and NGOs are now much more creative – using new social […]

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A Treatise of Banking Nature

When the publication of his Treatise of Human Nature met with almost universal indifference, Scottish philosopher David Hume remarked glumly that it “fell still-born from the press”. Anthony Salz – Rothschild banker and City of London grandee – will understand those sentiments after the rather muted reaction to his own tome on human nature, a […]

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Fish fraud: why traceability matters

In a guest blog post, Beth Lowell of Oceana reports on alarming rates of fish fraud in the United States. When you go out to your favorite seafood restaurant or pick up fish from the grocery store, you expect to leave knowing that you got what you paid for. But what if the fish you […]

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Land grab victims speak out

The World Bank singled out Georgia for praise last year for drastically reducing petty bribery: Georgia’s success destroys the myth that corruption is cultural and gives hope to reformers everywhere who aspire to clean up their public services.” I saw a different side to the story when I was in Georgia last month to give […]

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Maldives: Vote Buying Challenges Elections in a Troubled Muslim Democracy

As the Maldives heads for presidential elections in September this year, vote buying, a culture of misuse of state resources, concerns about transparency and integrity of judicial and electoral processes, and unprecedented levels of political polarisation pose immense challenges to this troubled democracy, a pre-election assessment  by Transparency Maldives has found. Vote buying One of […]

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L’affaire Cahuzac: a stain on Hollande’s integrity agenda or a wake-up call?

After four months of denial, Jérôme Cahuzac, former Minister of Budget, finally admitted he had a Swiss bank account in his name, transferred to Singapore in 2009, containing close to €600,000. He has now been placed under investigation over alleged laundering of tax-fraud money. This scandal – which is shaking the French political class and […]

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How to set up an offshore company in 10 minutes

Last week the massive “Offshore Leaks” investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported the uncovering of the beneficial owners of thousands of offshore companies. Among the owners of offshore shell companies disclosed so far are several senior politicians and their close families in various countries. Just how difficult and costly is it to […]

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#offshoreleaks: 21st Century Journalism at its best

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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5 ways to meet an anti-corruption Millennium Development Goal

This week the United Nations is bringing experts and world leaders to Indonesia to debate development priorities beyond 2015, when the Millennium Development Goals expire. Good governance tops the list of what to add to the current eight targets. We want to make certain that good governance and anti-corruption form part of the promises and […]

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Get involved: Support a mobile transparency project!

This article was cross-posted from the blog of the engine room Transparency International recently awarded grants to TI country chapters with ideas for mobilising more people in their countries around anti-corruption campaigns. The common thread among these new initiatives was a clear recognition of the potential that web and mobile-based technologies have to engage people. […]

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