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Local communities fight corruption at the (grass) roots

Transparency International is a household name in Bangladesh, thanks to one of the biggest chapters in our movement. The efforts of Transparency International Bangladesh to engage people from all over the country have resulted in a 5,000+ strong volunteer base and tens of thousands more participating in activities and campaigns. Founded in 1996 Transparency Bangladesh […]

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Making Slovak state companies more transparent

318 A new index measures transparency in state-owned companies. Ján Podhorský was appointed to lead Tepláreň Košice, hundred percent state-owned  heating plant, in August 2010, soon after national elections. Podhorský  was one of the hundreds of politically appointed managers who came to lead state companies after the electoral change. Nothing unusual in Slovakia, where two […]

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Bribery in Nigeria tackled globally, but not at home

Companies caught bribing in nigeria have paid billions in fines, but not in Nigeria. A nigerian NGO tries to find out why. One of the reasons why there are so many foreign bribery cases going on related to Nigeria (see box below), is basically that corruption in Nigeria is deeply entrenched in almost every area […]

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Brussels waters down Euro-Parliament Code of Conduct

In the European Parliament the issue of codes of conduct is a hot topic at the moment. As one Member of the European Parliament recently stated on facebook, “What my employment was before I was elected, is not of the European Parliament or your business.”  Unfortunately, it seems that some members of the European Parliament (MEPs) […]

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Foreign bribes in the Middle East & North Africa – Not just a regional problem

Recovery of stolen assets is a prime concern for Arab governments at the moment but what role did multinationals play in bribing former corrupt officials? A six month joint investigation published this week in British papers revealed that the country’s authorities have not been proactive in seizing key assets by the former Egyptian president Hosni […]

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Dealing in the dark: Portugal’s sad defence contracts

On 06 September, Transparency International releases its annual report on enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Right at the time the European Union is consumed with the debate over the debt crisis and politicians across the EU are busy playing the blame game, an interesting case going on in Portugal helps shed some light on […]

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Georgia: Politicians behaving badly

A Code of Ethics is a useful guide for Members of the Parliament (MPs) on how to behave – a list of things to do (and not do) when in public office. This was the objective for adopting a Parliamentary Ethics Code in Georgia, which was passed in 2004. When designed right, codes of ethics […]

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Why investors should care about transparency

On July 10, Transparency International issued a report showing that the world’s biggest companies are disclosing more about their measures for preventing corruption, but not so much of their financial data in the countries where they operate. Investors should take note of these findings. Risks associated with corruption can have devastating damaging effects on a […]

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Why we need a global convention against corruption

Governmental and UN representatives responsible for enforcement of the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption met in Vienna two months ago to discuss the process for reviewing implementation of anti-corruption measures. Below is an excerpt of a speech that Ifthekar Zaman, Executive Director of TI Bangladesh, gave. Like many other TI Chapters around the world we […]

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Codes of conduct in action: continental law states

As the previous post in this series revealed, examples of codes of conduct from common law countries show how the same issues – such as gifts and asset disclosures – are handled differently by different countries. A similar divergence can be seen in continental law countries. This is the fifth post in our series on […]

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