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The banks of Cyprus and the pursuit of integrity

The bail out of the troubled banking sector in Cyprus has taken on serious political overtones as the crisis deepens. During the past few weeks Cyprus has been accused of failing to combat money laundering and fraud and that Russian oligarchs seek refuge for their money in this “tax haven” country. Now the strongest members […]

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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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Why do women report corruption less than men?

As today is International Women’s Day, I looked at the complaints our help centres around the world received last year to see if there is any gender difference in reporting corruption. Unfortunately, the numbers suggest there is a significant difference: in many parts of the world, women are less likely to report an incident of […]

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Women’s day: South Africa’s corruption crusader

To ring in International Women’s Day on 8 March, Transparency International is featuring woman corruption fighters around the world. Thuli Madonsela is one of these women. She speaks in whispering tones and is always immaculately dressed. When she walks into a room and begins speaking, people sit up and listen. Fearless and resolute, this is […]

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Women’s Day: Seeking justice and transparency in Egypt

To ring in International Women’s Day on 8 March, Transparency International is featuring woman corruption fighters around the world. Evronia Azer is one of these women. The coastal city of Alexandria has no shortage of everyday heroes. The activists that do not grace newspaper headlines but just go about their insistent struggle for justice on […]

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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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Match-fixing in Turkey: a step in the right direction

When Europol, the European policing organisation announced recently that it had investigated more than 425 individuals in 13 countries for football match-fixing over the past 18 months, everyone was shocked at the sheer scale of the problem. Each country has its own experiences with match-fixing. In Turkey we have been closely following a match-fixing scandal […]

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Swiss vote to regulate CEO pay

This Sunday the Swiss voted in favor of a constitutional initiative entitled “Initiative against abusive remunerations”. This follows the proposal of similar measure in the European Parliament, which we blogged about on Friday. The initiative, which applies to all quoted companies, squarely prohibits welcome packages and golden parachutes as well as bonuses in relation with […]

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Why is Ukraine incapable of fulfilling the demands of Füle’s List? An analysis of state anticorruption policy

Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, paid an official visit to Kyiv on February 7 to discuss one topic: whether Ukraine is ready to sign the EU Association Agreement. After the visit, the European Union did not make a formal statement, but 19 strict demands for Ukraine, also known as the […]

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