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Defence: why it’s vital for countries to walk the anti-corruption talk

It is not just enough to talk about fighting corruption or even to sign an international convention outlawing it; it’s actions that count. But recent scandals in the defence sector show that, for some countries, the ride ahead is still very long and bumpy. Take, for example, the recent developments in the AgustaWestland scandal, in […]

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Semáforos en América: ¿Salvavidas o decoración urbana?

Imagina una escena en Buenos Aires, Caracas o cualquier otra capital en América: Son las 10:30 de la mañana y estás en tu coche corriendo a una cita a la que ya llegas tarde. El semáforo está en rojo, miras a la derecha, no viene ningún coche, miras a la izquierda, nada… Podrías saltarte el […]

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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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CPI 2013: Traffic lights in the Americas – lifesavers or urban decorations?

Imagine a scene in Buenos Aires, Caracas, or any other capital city in the Americas: It is 10:30am and you are in your car rushing to an appointment for which you are already late. You are at a red light. You look to the right, no cars coming, look to the left, no-one. You can […]

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CPI 2013: Rule of law vital for Africa’s development

This year the results of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) are not fundamentally different from those of the previous years: all but five Sub-Saharan African countries scored in the lower half of the survey. While these results may give the impression of little progress, it is important to highlight that over the years, some governments have […]

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Elections in Honduras: is public security a priority for presidential candidates?

Honduras is one of the most insecure countries in the world with the highest murder rate per capita. According to the Observatory of Violence (Observatorio de la Violencia), 85.5 people per 100,000 were murdered in Honduras in 2012 – almost 20 per day. This high level of violence occurs in a country in which half […]

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How whistleblowing on surveillance can reform the system

The Edward Snowden case is not the first in which the exposure of surveillance activities by the United States government led to a public debate about questions of security and privacy. In 1970, former US Army intelligence officers Christopher Pyle and Ralph Stein disclosed how the army was investigating the political activities of American citizens […]

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Leaks, press freedom and state surveillance: is this our fight?

Ever since the Wikileaks debate came to the fore, I have been wondering to what extent we, as Transparency International, should be taking a stand on the issue of Wikileaks, and what that stand should be. On the one hand we stand for transparency, principally because we are an anti-corruption organisation and transparency is one […]

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No defence for corruption in defence procurement

On 15 May Transparency International India invited senior figures in the defence establishment, including Defence Minister A.K. Antony, senior oversight officers from both state-owned and private defence companies, and experts from civil society to discuss the issue of corruption in defence procurement. There have been too many scandals in procurement – the AgustaWestland helicopter mess […]

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Fake bomb detectors and the latest casualties of corruption

This article was first published on Trustlaw Yesterday, the British ‘businessman’ James McCormick was found guilty of fraud for selling millions of pounds worth of utterly useless bomb detectors to governments around the world, including a major contract in Iraq. A whistleblower alleges that McCormick paid millions of pounds in bribes to at least 15 […]

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