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Will Britain tackle tax evasion?

317 Pressure on what are alternatively called ‘offshore havens’, ‘tax havens305’ or ‘secrecy jurisdictions’ is reaching an unprecedented level. There are more than fifty such havens world wide, and governments are finally coming around to the idea voiced by activists that tougher regulation is needed. The economic crisis has lent urgency to the cause. Britain’s […]

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Transparency comes calling on telecoms, banking sectors

Our recent report on corporate transparency has exposed lamentably low levels of country-by-country reporting across the business spectrum. This means 69 of the world’s biggest companies operate in India, for example, but only two disclose how much money they made there, and not one discloses Indian tax payments on their main corporate website (see the […]

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Corporate whistleblowers gain new rights and opportunities in the US

Largely under the public radar, the last decade has seen a legal revolution in the United States in the area of corporate freedom of speech. Although a hodgepodge of 57 laws protecting corporate and government whistleblowers remains, 11 private sector laws passed since the turn of the millennium have established consistent principles for a modern […]

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Big banks: Where does the buck stop?

After four years of economic crisis and financial scandal, finally some good news. Eighty-five per cent of bank employees surveyed believe that their companies have an ethical duty to fight corruption. That is a finding from our survey of 3,000 businesspeople in 30 countries: Putting Corruption out of Business (see what businesspeople from other sectors […]

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TI Portugal Summer School: A lesson on integrity

You might have seen Portugal on the news recently. Just over a week ago, an estimated million people (in a country of roughly 10 million) took to the streets protesting new austerity measures announced by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho. Talk of instability in the governing coalition amid increased public anger damaged the country’s reputation […]

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The business case for fighting corruption

With countries under pressure to create growth and jobs, especially for the young generation just entering the job market, dealing effectively with corruption is not only an ethical imperative; it is an imperative for the well-being of the economy and society. Elaine Dezenski, Senior Director and Head, Partnering Against Corruption Initiative, World Economic Forum, explores […]

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Bribery in Hungary: A Close Encounter of the Third Kind

‘All countries share a responsibility to combat bribery’, according to the OECD anti-bribery convention. But a bribery case in Hungary that has seen action in several other countries, but not Hungary itself, is testing that principle. There is no obstacle stopping British or Swedish law enforcers who investigated the sale of fighter jets to Hungary […]

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Barriers to preventing corruption: what do businesspeople say?

Last week, on 12 September, three former Hewlett-Packard managers were charged in a corruption investigation over improper payments aimed at winning a 35 million euro (US$45 million) computer sales contract in Russia some nine years ago. The former German Hewlett-Packard subsidiary has been charged with bribery, breach of trust and aiding in tax evasion. But […]

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Record-breaking whistleblower award completes the circle

On 12 September 2012, the US Internal Revenue Service awarded Bradley Birkenfeld $104 million for providing information on how the Swiss bank UBS AG helped thousands of US citizens hide billions of dollars from tax authorities. Mark Worth, Transparency International’s Whistleblower Programme Coordinator, discusses what this means for whistleblowers and would-be whistleblowers everywhere. The big […]

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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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