A bribery scheme to win market dominance in Mexico?

Over the weekend, the New York Times alleged that Wal-Mart deliberately hid investigations into bribery practices at the company’s largest foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico. Wal-Mart is Mexico’s largest private sector employer with currently 209,000 employees. Allegedly there is a paper trail that includes hundreds of suspect payments worth more 24 million USD in total. […]

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If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it

“If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it,” was the press headline when Severn Suzuki addressed heads of states in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. She was twelve years old, at what was then the world’s biggest ever political gathering. In an impassioned critique of unfettered industrialism, Severn lamented the decline […]

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Nigeria: Government must defend rule of law and prosecute officials who commit fraud

The recent conviction of a rich and powerful Nigerian politician in a UK court for laundering stolen assets and news that Nigerian lawmakers are studying the elimination of its two main corruption-fighting commissions has left many members in the mighty West African country’s civil society with mixed feelings. On one hand it’s good to see […]

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Who owns what? Trying to clean dirty money in the EU

How do you fancy owning two Bugatti Veyrons, the fastest and priciest street car in the world, with a top speed of 250mph and a cost of €1m a pop? Or how about splashing out €18m on art formally owned by French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent? How about affording all of this on your […]

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Slow progress in the UNCAC review process

Slowly but steadily the review teams in the UNCAC review process are completing reports covering the countries in the first year – those under review since July 2010. Of the expected twenty-six first year reports, nine have been completed according to published information. UNODC advises that several more reports are in the pipeline and that […]

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Will the fruits of Africa’s commodity boom be lost to corruption?

As the prices of oil and other non-renewable commodities begin to soar once again, anti-corruption activists from DR Congo, Ghana, Liberia and Zimbabwe were in Brussels last week with the message that there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get their economies on a sustainable development path, a path that has been blocked by corruption in […]

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Corruption in Greece – a crisis of values

Everyone at the moment is interested in the situation in Greece – the impact of the financial crisis, why it ever happened and the future of the country.  One way to understand it is to talk to the Greeks themselves, of course. We visited Greece for the launch of their important study ‘National Integrity Systems’ […]

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Public service advertising – has political corruption found a new home?

The days of passing money under the table and in dark corridors may be over for corrupt politicians as they get smarter and savvier about bilking the system. The use of low interest loans to politicians (think Germany) and public companies to make campaign contributions (think Serbia) are just two new ways that political corruption […]

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Passing the corruption car-test

Although tackling corruption is not an auditor’s function, audit processes can sometimes uncover irregularities better than the bodies tasked to do so. Think of it as a car test. Audits are to institutions what a car test is to you and me. Picture yourself in the unavoidable and annoying queue many have to endure every […]

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New technologies for more accountability: Watch the Transparency Works conference

Our chapter in Lithuania in cooperation with the Sunlight Foundation held an international conference that brings together IT developers and NGOs to talk about online transparency initiatives, public monitoring of and citizen engagement in democratic processes from March 29-30. The event featured around 30 international speakers from more than 20 countries exchanging ideas about how […]

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