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Venezuela: The State as Election Campaign Headquarters

Lea este post en español aquí. When is a presidential election free and fair? During the 2012 presidential campaign in Venezuela, the Alerta Electoral bulletin recorded numerous instances of public resources being used to support the president’s successful election campaign. For example, in July 2012 Alerta Electoral – which is produced by a coalition of […]

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Venezuela: El Estado como Oficina de Campaña

Read this blog post in English here. ¿Cuándo puede decirse que una elección presidencial es libre y justa? Durante la campaña presidencial en Venezuela del año pasado, el boletín Alerta Electoral registró numerosas instancias del uso de recursos públicos para apoyar la exitosa campaña del entonces presidente. Por ejemplo, en Julio de 2012 el boletín […]

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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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(Anti-) Corruption in the police: progress made and pending issues

Corruption in the Peruvian police has hit the headlines for two reasons: The Peruvian authorities have decided to start a rotating system of 80% of their policemen in order for these to be more difficult to get involved in organised crime activities; between 2011 and 2012 there were 6.000 policemen being investigated for corruption. Samuel […]

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Is there enough transparency at US universities?

As university tuition costs increase and the job market remains weak, with many college graduates unemployed or underemployed, the choice of university for young US adults becomes increasingly a financial one. And to make a good financial choice, one needs good information. Consider these facts: even after controlling for inflation, between 1980 and 2010 the […]

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HSBC, Panama: “Exit, stage right”

The moral relativism that traditionally infects multinationals in hot, corrupt countries is going out of style.”  This is according to Jonathan Guthrie of the Financial Times, in discussing the decision of HSBC to close down its operations in Panama (Corruption Perceptions Index score in 2012: 38 out of 100).  The decision was  purportedly to increase […]

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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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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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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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