Archive | Europe and Central Asia RSS feed for this section

Good Governance in Grassroots Sport

This week sports ministers and experts from more than 50 countries are meeting in Berlin to discuss the future of sports under the auspices of UNESCO. Good governance is a key priority. Here Saska Benedicic Tomat, head of projects at the International Sport and Cultural Association, explains why it is so important in grassroots sports. […]

Read full story Comments { 2 }

Thanks, British taxpayer! Thanks Royal Bank of Scotland

Banks are currently not everybody’s darling so it’s no wonder that they try to polish their image. I was invited last week to a Scottish evening hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland — which is 81 percent owned by the British government — at the Skylounge of the E-Werk, a typically lavish party location […]

Read full story Comments { 1 }

Too little transparency in new Czech law on political party financing

The Czech parliament is currently considering a new law to increase transparency in how political parties are funded. This should have been a reason to celebrate, given that Transparency International Czech Republic and other non-governmental organisations have been working on this for the past two years. But the law could and should have been so […]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

Whistleblowing in Greece: an alternative to silence

In September 2012, the US Internal Revenue Service awarded Bradley Birkefeld with US$104 million, as he provided prosecutors with detailed information about the “consultating services” that UBS AG offered to rich clients, thus enabling tax evasion. Within two months, new legislation on whistleblowers’ protection for federal employees came up by the US President Barack Obama. […]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

No one has all the answers: the positive role of civil society in Russia

Last week the Moscow City Prosecutor’s Office sent to Transparency International Russia an official warning to register as a foreign agent. This came because the Prosecutor said TI Russia was shaping public opinion about government policies in the field of law enforcement and had an impact on the adoption by State institutions of laws and […]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

L’Aquila: Rebuilding lives beyond corruption

While politicians are busy recomposing the puzzle, people are struggling to make ends meet. Citizens are aware of the toll that corruption takes on their present and on their future and the youth is ready to speak up and claim its rights to fair and clean governance, as the following video shows.

Read full story Comments { 1 }

France acts on asset declaration

Reposted from the Transparency International UK blog. It has been striking how far and how quickly France has moved towards asset disclosure by government ministers in recent weeks, with parliamentarians to follow if a new law is passed. Striking also that when political will exists, galvanised by public outrage, transparency is not so hard to […]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

Land grab victims speak out

The World Bank singled out Georgia for praise last year for drastically reducing petty bribery: Georgia’s success destroys the myth that corruption is cultural and gives hope to reformers everywhere who aspire to clean up their public services.” I saw a different side to the story when I was in Georgia last month to give […]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

Armenia: Fighting back at the ballot box

On March 15th the Supreme Court in Armenia annulled the election results from Precinct No. 17/5 in Artashat, where I spent an unforgettable day in mid-February watching ballots being stuffed while I was physically pinned to a wall by a group of thugs. I never thought such overt cheating like ballot stuffing would happen. After […]

Read full story Comments { 0 }

Iraq’s corruption legacy

$800 million. That’s the staggering amount of money said to be unlawfully transferred out of Iraq every week. Last month marked the ten year anniversary of the start of the occupation of Iraq by coalition forces. The aftermath of war and occupation has been ravaging well after the withdrawal of foreign troops. The US Special […]

Read full story Comments { 8 }