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Honduras: Nuevo mecanismo de auditoría social en el sector seguridad

Centroamérica es una de las regiones más violentas del mundo. Honduras lidera el ranking mundial de países más violentos con una tasa de 82 homicidios cada 100.000 habitantes. En esta región hay indicios de que el crimen organizado ha logrado infiltrarse y cooptar a la policía. Es decir, la institución estatal por excelencia responsable de controlar […]

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Malaysian Prime Minister signs Election Integrity Pledge

Now that the Prime Minister has signed Transparency International Malaysia’s Election Integrity Pledge (on 20 February), it is time for all of Malaysia’s political parties to step up to the plate and join the ruling party in upholding the Election Offences Act – an act that was passed in 1954. The integrity of elections is […]

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Shame on you: citizens move to keep Brazil clean-up on course

When the Supreme Court in Brazil convicted and sentenced senior politicians for having their hand in the cookie jar – a case universally known as the Mensalão – diverting public resources for their own benefit, we had a notion that now Brazil had functioning institutions. The courts were for almost the first time seen as […]

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Horse meat scandal: food transparency in focus

In January, Irish food inspectors revealed they had found horse DNA in products labeled as beef being sold by British supermarkets in the country. The revelation quickly led to more discoveries around Europe, with some products that claimed to be cow meat actually found to be 100 per cent horse. There has been a rash […]

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Salvadoran Parliament wastes public funds

This post was authored by Alejandra Guzmán Galván, Communications counselor of the ALAC-El Salvador and Xenia Hernández Castro, Lawyer of the ALAC-El Salvador. Para leer la versión en español haga click aquí.    On 10 January 2013 citizens contacted our Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) in El Salvador to report an inappropriate expenditure of public funds, […]

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Despilfarro en Congreso salvadoreño

Las autoras de este post son Alejandra Guzmán Galván, Asesora de comunicaciones del ALAC-El Salvador, y Xenia Hernández Castro, abogada del ALAC-El Salvador. To view the English version click here.    El 10 de enero de 2013, el Centro de Asistencia Legal Anticorrupción (ALAC) El Salvador comenzó a recibir denuncias ciudadanas sobre gastos realizados por la Asamblea […]

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Fighting corruption in Italy is an uphill struggle

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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Zimbabwe: Women make easy prey for corrupt politicians

Politicians in Zimbabwe are taking advantage of the fact women face existing legal limitations. Research shows that women, who often have lower incomes, have limited access to basic public services because they are less likely to pay bribes to get the services. This makes it difficult for them to acquire registration documents like a mining […]

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Hungry for results: A new crusade in Mexico and its need for transparency and accountability

This blog post was written by Paola Palacios, Programme Coordinator of the Initiative for the Institutional Strengthening of Social Programmes (IPRO) and Monserrat Hernández, Project Consultant for IPRO at Transparencia Mexicana, the National Chapter of Transparency International in Mexico. Mexico is the second biggest economy in Latin America and growing steadily. Yet, despite its economic […]

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History matters II – what stone carvings and magic lanterns have to do with fighting corruption

Some time ago I argued on this blog that looking back into history provides a very promising source for inspiration and innovation in the fight against corruption. Many things we consider new to modern government, such as measures managing conflicts of interest and insulating decision-making from policy capture were foreshadowed by and startlingly resemble many […]

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