Ireland’s horror week in sport: perpetrators and victims of the unOlympic Games

If you think FIFA is a mess, then take a look at the Olympic Council of Ireland and the International Boxing Association (AIBA). Just today the Brazilian police arrested Patrick Hickey, head of the Irish and European Olympic committees over illegal Olympic ticket sales. AIBA is in the firing line for allegations over bought judges […]

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Cairo

Playing with numbers won’t cure Egypt’s corruption

“There is corruption in local government,” admitted President Abdel Fattah el Sisi at a presidential youth forum in Cairo in early August. “But, what can we do?” he laughed. “Sack and jail Hisham Geneina” was one sarcastic suggestion on Twitter. Geneina was the head of Egypt’s top auditing body until earlier this year when he […]

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Russian flag

What to think when Russia walks into the Olympic stadium

For a Russian, waiting for the Olympics to begin is not easy. There are many conflicting emotions and questions. Is it right to ban some but not all athletes? Do we blame our Ministry of Sport for devising a doping programme and cover-up, the International Olympic Committee or the World Anti-Doping Agency? Is it only […]

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Image, Courtesy of TI Italy

Thousands of citizens support whistleblower protection law in Italy – you can join them!

No country can fight corruption seriously unless the people who have the courage to speak out are protected. That’s why Transparency International Italy and Riparte il Futuro, an important anti-corruption association, launched our petition on 20 July calling on the Senate to stop stalling and approve whistleblower protection legislation now. A draft law, based on […]

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How to steal billions

From 2009 to at least 2013, private individuals were allegedly able to siphon off more than $3.5 billion from the wealth fund of Malaysia and go on a high-end luxury shopping spree in several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland for property, museum-quality art and a private jet. Gatekeepers such as […]

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New whistleblower protection law in France not yet fit for purpose

Michel Sapin, the French Minister of Finance, promised to deliver a comprehensive anti-corruption law that included protection for those courageous enough to speak out against corruption and malpractice. The minister set the bar high when he said that the law should “cover all possible situations… and here, I obviously think of situations like the one […]

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Three reasons why attacking Egypt’s top auditor is bad news

Putting Egypt’s top auditor on trial sends a clear message: the Egyptian government is waging a war. Not against corruption but against those who fight against it. When President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi came to power in 2013, he made fighting corruption a top priority; “There should be full trust in the monitoring bodies and their […]

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The $6.5 million apartment on Starovolynskaya Street

How is it possible for the extended family of Russian politicians and civil servants to get a $6.5 million apartment situated in the Moscow equivalent of millionaires’ row? That was the question that came to mind when we started investigating 15 Starovolynskaya Street and the Rogozin family. Dmitry Rogozin is Deputy Prime Minister and in charge of the Ministry […]

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FIFA: another own goal?

On 13 May at the first FIFA Congress since he was elected president of football’s world governing body, Gianni Infantino claimed FIFA was over its corruption crisis. He also announced the appointment of someone outside football as the new general secretary, Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura from Senegal, a former businesswoman who has worked in various senior posts […]

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Makula logs in Zambia

Caution and optimism in Zambia as forest scheme scales up

The bark of the mukula tree has medicinal properties, the outer wood is prized for furniture and flooring, and the dense core is valuable to Chinese rifle manufacturers. With hundreds or thousands of dollars packed into each plant, mukula forests represent a gold mine for Zambia. But an entrenched web of corruption ensures only powerful […]

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