|
| Global and Regional News |
- Revised
Draft United Nations Convention against Corruption
- Group
of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council
of Europe --
Evaluation reports on Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, and
Norway
- International
Conference on European Standards and
Ombudsman Institutions in Southeast Europe -- 6-8 June,
2002, Bulgaria
- Regional
PACO seminar on judicial networking in South-eastern
Europe, 19-22 June, Portoroz, Slovenia
- Awards
under SPAI Small Grant Programme for civil society organizations
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|
Country
News
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- Czech
Republic: Foreign Investors Call on
New Government to Crack Down on Corruption
- Kyrgyzstan: Poll shows corruption rife in fiscal agencies
- Macedonia
-- Conference on Macedonia and Corruption
- Poland:
Civil Service Information Centre
- Poland:
Election campaign and financial disclosure
- Romania:
Romania needs to continue battle against corruption,
EU official says
- Serbia:
Government adopts draft law on fighting corruption,
organized crime
- Sloval
Republic: Slovaks see corruption as
increasingly serious problem - poll
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|
New Publications
|
- World
Bank Publications from July 2002 anti-corruption
sessions on Donor Interventions in Post-Conflict Situations:
The Issue of Corruption and Latest Developments on Anti-Corruption:
Sector Mainstreaming.
- Behind
the Corporate Veil: Using Corporate Entities for Illicit
Purposes (2001) -- OECD report on corporate secrecy and its misuses
- Code
of Ethics and Social Audit Manual for SMEs
-- by Integra Foundation
And
more....
|
|
Headline
News
|
- Selected
news headlines collected by Transparency International's
Daily Corruption News and other sources: Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Mongolia,
Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey,
and Ukraine.
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Visit our website http://www.nobribes.org/
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HIGHLIGHTS
IN DETAILS...
Revised
Draft United Nations Convention against Corruption --
In its resolution 55/61 of 4 December 2000, the UN General
Assembly recognized that an effective international legal
instrument against corruption, independent of the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime
(Assembly resolution 55/25, annex I), was desirable and
decided to begin the elaboration of such an instrument
in Vienna at the headquarters of the Centre for International
Crime Prevention of the Office for Drug Control and Crime
Prevention. It also decided to establish an ad hoc committee
for the negotiation of such an instrument. Pursuant to
resolution 55/61, the Intergovernmental Open-Ended Expert
Group to Prepare Draft Terms of Reference for the Negotiation
of an International Legal Instrument against Corruption
was established.
First
draft United Nations Convention against Corruption was
discussed by the Ad
Hoc Committee for the Negotiation of a Convention against
Corruption at its meeting on December 4-11, 2001. Revised
Draft Convention was discussed on June 17-23, 2002.
Read: Draft UN Convention
against Corruption (A/AC.261/3/Rev.1) in English and in Russian. Also available in French, Spanish, Arabic
and Chinese).
UN Publications:
- The Global
Programme against Corruption
- Draft
United Nations Manual on Anti-Corruption Policy,
(2001), Global Programme against Corruption
- Draft
United Nations Anti-Corruption Tool Kit (Version
3), (2002), Global Programme against Corruption
- Investigating the links
between Access to Justice and Governance Factors, Global
Programme against Corruption (Print
optimized, PDF English, 542 KB)
- An Economic and Jurimetric
Analysis of Official Corruption in the Courts, Global
Programme against Corruption (Print
optimized, PDF English, 595 KB)
- Empowering the Victims
of Corruption through Social Control Mechanisms,Global
Programme against Corruption (PDF
English, 478 KB)
- United Nations Action
Against Corruption and Bribery (1997).
English,
PDF English
Group
of States against Corruption (GRECO) of the Council of
Europe:
Evaluation reports
on Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, and Norway --
Following
the decision of the governments, the evaluation reports
on Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, and Norway, adopted by GRECO
at its plenary meetings in May and July 2002, were made
public. The principal objective of the reports
is to evaluate the measures adopted by governments of
the countries and wherever possible their effectiveness,
in order to comply with the requirements deriving from
Guiding
Principles for the fight against corruption (GPCs)
#3, #6 and #7. The reports are available in PDF format.
Evaluation
report on Norway
Evaluation
report on Latvia
Evaluation
report on Bulgaria
Evaluation
report on Croatia
Previously,
we published reports on Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia, and Slovenia.
International
Conference on European Standards and Ombudsman Institutions
in Southeast Europe --
The Centre for the Study of Democracy, Bulgaria, organized
on 6-8 June 2002 an International Conference on European
Standards and Ombudsman Institutions in Southeast Europe
in co-operation with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The
Conference aimed at assessing the successes and failures
of Ombudsman institutions in Southeast Europe, strengthening
European standards in their performance and establishing
a network among them in order to exchange information
and experience.
More detailed information
about the conference, including the full records of the
discussions, is available on the Centre for
the Study of Democracy website.
Promoting
Judicial Networking in South-Eastern Europe - Focus on
Corruption and Trafficking in Human Beings --
A regional PACO seminar on judicial networking in South-eastern
Europe was held in Portoroz, Slovenia, from 19 to 22 June
2002, with a particular focus on corruption and trafficking
in human beings. The seminar was jointly organized by
the Council of Europe and the Office of the Government
of the Republic of Slovenia for the Prevention of Corruption
within the framework of the Programme against Corruption
and Organised Crime in South-eastern Europe (PACO). Other
Slovenian public institutions as well as the Slovenian
anti-trafficking NGO "Kljuc" also contributed
to the seminar.
The seminar brought together
over a hundred judicial and law enforcement officials
and representatives of NGOs dealing with anti-trafficking
and anti-corruption issues from ten South-eastern European
countries, as well as experts of the Council of Europe
and representatives of other international organizations.
Participants in the seminar
prepared a manual on judicial co-operation against corruption
and organized crime. They formulated country-specific
recommendations to guide judicial and law enforcement
co-operation against trafficking in human beings, as well
as recommendations to counter corruption problems within
the context of trafficking in human beings.
For further information,
please contact Livia Stoica at the Council of Europe (livia.stoica@coe.int).
Awards
under SPAI Small Grant Programme for CSOs--
To support
the activities already undertaken within the framework
of SPAI under its civil society pillar, a small grant
programme for civil society organizations of the region
was recently launched by the OECD with the financial support
of the U.S. State Department and, for one project, by
the Swiss Government.
The
program is part of the Cavtat process launched last September
at the SPAI Conference on Civil Society and during which
Governments of the region and civil society representatives
were invited to develop concrete and "actionable"
action plans for the next 12 to 18 months with a view
to strengthening collaborative partnerships between SPAI
Governments and civil society and making civil society
action in the fight against corruption more effective.
The objectives of the program
are to: support the concrete implementation of the country
action plans adopted in Cavtat; promote synergies between
local CSOs at the national and regional levels; enhance
co-operation between local CSOs and Governments; promote
good practices and sharing of experience among local CSOs
and help local actors improve their action in the anti-corruption
field.
A total of 12 grants of
up to 11,400 Euro have been or are in the process of being
allocated, including 9 country grants for local NGOs of
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FRY/Montenegro,
FRY/Serbia, FYROM, Moldova, and Romania, one grant for
media associations, one for trade unions and one for chambers
of commerce. Completion of the program is foreseen for
the end of December 2002.
Civil society projects
supported under the programme:
- Albania: "Involving
and increasing the role of Albanian trade unions in
fighting corruption", project presented by the
Trade Union Federation of Education and Science of Albania.
- BiH: "Training
on Investigative Journalism in Corruption Issues",
project presented by Transparency International Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
- Croatia: still
awaiting for project
- FYROM: "Local
Anti-Corruption Partnership", project presented
by Transparency International Macedonia.
- FRY/Serbia: "Anti-Corruption
Action Plans for the Ministry of Education and Sports
and Ministry of Finance and Economy", project presented
by Transparency International Serbia.
- FRY/Montenegro:
"Corruption Assesment Report 2001", project
presented by the Center for Transition
- Moldova: "Creating
democratic audit practices of the municipal governments
in Moldova", project presented by the Institute
for Democracy and Social Initiatives "IDIS- Viitorul".
- Romania: "Romanian
legal framework of lobby activity-assessment and raising
awareness campaign", project presented by the Centre
for Legal Resources. This project is supported by the
Swiss Government.
- Romania: "Governmental
transparency in the regulatory making process",
project presented by Transparency International Romania.
- Media associations:
"Crna Gora and Srbija - without corruption-related
Borders", project presented by the Beta News Agency,
FRY.
- Trade Unions:
"Anti-corruption partnership. media and trade unions
in action", project presented by the National Trade
Union Bloc (BNS), Romania.
- Chambers of commerce:
"Business ethics ", project presented by the
Croatian Chamber of Economy.
For more information, please
contact Mr. Edric Selous (Edric.Selous@oecd.org, Tel: +33
1 45 24 93 88, Fax: +33 1 44 30 63 07) or visit SPAI
website.
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| Country News |
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Czech Republic:
Foreign
Investors Call on New Government to Crack Down on Corruption
--
The European-Czech Forum, representing commercial and
industrial chambers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany,
the Netherlands, and Sweden, called on the new Czech government
to initiate a radical reform of the business environment's
legal framework and to contain economic crime, including
corruption, the daily "Mlada fronta Dnes" reported
on 16 July. Members of the forum said this can only be
achieved through a radical improvement of the Czech judiciary's
work and an improvement of the public administration and
independent regulators.
Source --
RFE/RL Crime and Corruption Watch, 25 July 2002, Volume
2, Number 27
Kyrgyzstan:
Poll
shows corruption rife in fiscal agencies
--
At a request by the secretariat [as heard] of a Kyrgyz
president's special envoy for attracting foreign investment,
a Professional Manager consultative firm has held a poll
among international experts and state officials and businessmen
[in Kyrgyzstan] about problems which hinder the attraction
of foreign investment in the country.
According to the poll results,
about 80 per cent of the businessmen said that state officials
were putting obstacles [in their way to bring foreign
investment], 53 per cent said the legal basis [for attracting
foreign investment] was weak and 56 per cent said that
corruption was increasing.
[Replying] to a question
what state agency is most corrupt, 91 per cent of the
businessmen said the State Customs Inspectorate, 75 per
cent said the Tax Inspectorate and 44 per cent said the
State Traffic Inspectorate.
Source --
Kyrgyz Radio first programme, Bishkek, in Kyrgyz 1700
gmt 17 Jul 02. Copyright BBC Monitoring.
Macedonia:
Conference on “Macedonia and Corruption”
--
A conference on “Macedonia and Corruption – Context and
Challenges” was organised by the Open Society Institute
- Macedonia on 21 June 2002, Skopje. The purpose of the
conference was to analyse the context and define the challenges
that Macedonia is facing in fighting corruption. Representatives
from various NGOs, political parties, ministries and state
institutions, media, international organisations and embassies
participated in the conference.
For more information
about this conference, please contact Neda Zdraveva at:
nzdrav@soros.org.mk.
Poland:
Civil
Service Information Centre --
A Civil Service Information Centre was opened by the Office
of Civil Service in Poland in January 2002. Its
objective is to bring the administration closer to the
citizen and to improve communication within the civil
service corps. Information is provided on basic questions
related to the type of service and the scope of individual
administration offices, as well as on the civil service
in general, e.g. employment and career opportunities,
details of the recruitment process for higher posts, etc.
The Centre provides written material (Civil Service Law,
information brochures and leaflets, copies of documents
and official forms, etc.) as well as a CD-ROM on job opportunities
and a video on the civil service. Clients can make use
of computers with a high-speed Internet link, ask staff
members for assistance in accessing information about
state administration, and print or copy this information
on the premises. The Centre can be visited in person,
contacted by mail, telephone, fax and e-mail: centrum@usc.gov.pl.
Also in January 2002, the first volume of the Polish Yearbook
of Civil Service was published. The Yearbook is devoted
to the activity and development of the Polish civil service
and public administration, and is available from the Office
of Civil Service website.
Visit Polish Civil Service
Information Center
Poland:
Corruption
control --
The candidates for district and city councillors representing
Law and Justice (PiS) will all make the value and contents
of their assets known to the public by publishing property
statements in the run up to the election campaign. The
move is seen as the beginning of the party's campaign
before the autumn local authority elections, with PiS
making the issue of corruption its key political concern.
"Corruption reigns in Poland. It has become the primary
method and motive," claimed PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski
at Warsaw's Anti-Corruption Conference. According to the
party, although Poland's problems with corruption in the
circles of power stem from years of communism, not enough
has been done to do away with the phenomenon since 1989.
Kaczynski argues that while social dissent against corrupt
politicians has been on the rise, the ruling coalition
has attempted to brush it off by its tacit acceptance
of the lawbreaking activities of the populist Samoobrona
movement.
Source --
Polish News Bulletin 11 Jul 2002
Romania:
Romania needs to continue battle against corruption, EU
official says --
The government is making progress in its effort to battle
widespread corruption, but much more needs to be done,
an EU official said Tuesday. Romania aspires to join the
European Union and NATO, but officials from both organizations
have told the country it must eliminate its endemic corruption
before it can be considered for membership. Romania hopes
to join the Western military alliance in the fall and
the EU in 2007.
"The government has
picked up speed (in dealing with corruption) but is not
at full throttle," EU special envoy Emma Nicholson
told The Associated Press during a routine visit to Bucharest.
The battle against corruption was "a national fight
... it is everybody's battle" that required "enormous
energy and commitment." "Corruption has become
rooted in people's thinking and prosperity is a vision,
not reality," she said.
President Ion Iliescu and
Prime Minister Adrian Nastase have criticized corruption
and bribes - part of every day life in Romania - calling
on people to report officials who demand kickbacks.
Nicholson also criticized
Romania's newspaper editors and publishers for not taking
responsibility for what is published in their papers.
Most Romanian papers carry notes saying individual reporters,
not editors or publishers are liable for the articles.
"This is not free speech, she said. "It is an
abdication of responsibility of editors."
Source --
Associated Press 09 Jul 2002
Serbia:
Government
adopts draft law on fighting corruption, organized crime
--
The government of Yugoslavia's larger republic approved
the draft of a special new law on fighting organized crime
and corruption, a statement said Tuesday.
The draft was passed on
under an "urgent matter" label to Serbia's parliament,
where it is expected to come up for debate later this
week.
The law is part of reforms
initiated by the new democratic leadership that ousted
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ( news -
web sites), who is now on trial before the Netherlands-based
U.N. war crimes tribunal for genocide during the Balkan
wars of the 1990s.
Since the start of ethnic
conflicts fanned by Milosevic's policies, soaring crime,
black markets and smuggling have flourished in Yugoslavia,
adding to the country's instability.
Since taking over in 2000,
the new government in Serbia has pledged to enact sweeping
police reforms to fight organized crime and corruption,
including alleged Mafia links to the political system.
An independent prosecutor is also planned.
The timing of the new legislation
is believed linked to last month's slaying of a high-ranking
police officer. The authorities have blamed organized
crime for the June 10 murder of police Maj. Gen. Bosko
Buha.
The killing - an underworld-style
slaying reminiscent of Milosevic's era - left the government,
the police force and the public in shock.
Source --
Associated Press 09 Jul 2002
Slovak
Republic:
Slovaks see corruption as increasingly serious problem
- poll
Bratislava: The citizens of Slovakia consider unemployment
to be the most serious social problem. It is viewed as
such by 65 per cent of respondents who were polled by
the Public Opinion Research Institute on their views on
the upcoming parliamentary election.
The second biggest problem,
identified as such by 59 per cent of respondents, is the
standard of living and social guarantees, with health
care coming third (33 per cent).
Compared with 1999, the
urgency of the problem of ethics, corruption and cronyism
has doubled. In 1999 this issue was identified as the
most serious problem by 15 per cent of those polled, this
year by 31 per cent.
The economy and privatization
are regarded as the most serious problem by 21 per cent
of those polled and rule of law, democracy, and politics
by 19 per cent. A favourable trend has been registered
with regard to crime and citizens' safety. At the beginning
of the election term, this was seen as the most serious
problem by 36 per cent of citizens, this year by only
18 per cent.
For the 9 per cent of those
polled, housing is the biggest problem, for 8 per cent
education, for 5 per cent ethnic problems, for 3 per cent
drugs and alcohol and for 1 per cent foreign policy and
the environment.
Source --
BBC Monitoring Service 25 Jul 2002
|
| Publications and Reports |
| New
publications on our website:
World Bank Publications:
On June 19-20, 2002, the World Bank Poverty Reduction
and Economic Management network organized a PREM Week
2002 entitled Spurring Equitable Growth and Empowering
People. Two sessions were directly related to anti-corruption:
Donor Interventions in Post-Conflict Situations: The Issue
of Corruption and Latest Developments on Anti-Corruption:
Sector Mainstreaming.
Behind the Corporate Veil: Using Corporate Entities
for Illicit Purposes (2001): OECD
Report on corporate secrecy and its misuses that
urges governments to combat such misuse by acting to ensure
the availability of information about ownership and control.
Code
of Ethics and Social Audit Manual for SMEs: The Integra Foundation recently
published a “Code of Ethics and Social Audit Manual” designed
to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in examining
their own processes, practices and motives, as well as
to encourage them in their efforts to build an ethical
and transparent corporate culture.
Click
here to het more information on these and other publications...
|
| Headline News |
|
Selected
news headlines collected by Transparency International's
Daily Corruption News and other sources:
To
get more detailed information go to the News Page
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA:
Senior Bank Executives Being
Investigated Over Loans -- RFE/RL Crime
and Corruption Watch, 25 July 2002, Volume 2, Number
27
CZECH
REPUBLIC:
...A Suspected Accomplice Says She
Spent Years Collecting Bribes Related to Ministry Contracts...
-- RFE/RL Crime and Corruption Watch, 25 July
2002, Volume 2, Number 27
KAZAKHSTAN:
Kazakh opposition leader
jailed -- BBC News, 18 July, 2002.
LATVIA:
Government
decides on third competition to find anti-corruption chief
-- BNS news agency, Tallinn, in English 1333 gmt 30 Jul
02. Copyright BBC Monitoring
MONGOLIA:
Donors withhold Mongolia
aid on corruption, reform fears -- Reuters
10 Jul 2002
POLAND:
Prime
Minister Vows Tough Action Against Corrupt Cops -- RFE/RL
Crime and Corruption Watch, 25
July 2002, Volume 2,
Number 27
POLAND:
Polish
NATO Officers Charged with Corruption
-- RFE/RL Crime and Corruption
Watch, 25 July 2002, Volume
2, Number 27
POLAND:
Largest corruption scandal
to end in no conclusion -- Polish
News Bulletin 01 Jul 2002
POLAND:
Local election loophole
-- Polish News Bulletin 10 Jul 2002
ROMANIA:
Education minister asks
for investigation into bribes at schools
-- Associated Press 10 Jul 2002 (on TI website)
ROMANIA:
Senate approves new national
anticorruption prosecution -- Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline 27 Jun 2002 (on TI wesite)
RUSSIA:
Former executives of major
Russian airline go on trial for corruption
-- Associated Press 08 Jul 2002 (on TI website)
RUSSIA:
Bribery
and Russian education -- RFE/RL Crime and Corruption Watch 11 Jul 2002
RUSSIA:
Audit Chamber Seeks Greater
Power to Battle Corruption -- RFE/RL
Crime and Corruption Watch, 25 July 2002, Volume
2, Number 27
SERBIA:
Belgrade high school learns
lesson in corruption -- International
Herald Tribune 02 Jul 2002
SLOVAK
REPUBLIC:
Slovak ex-minister facing
charges of fraud, abuse of office --CTK
news agency, Prague, in English 1023 gmt 11 Jul 02. Copyright
BBC Monitoring
TURKEY:
Court convicts three former
energy officials of corruption --Associated
Press 12 Jul 2002 (on TI website)
UKRAINE:
Corruption
in Ukrainian Coal Sector Targeted
-- RFE/RL Crime and Corruption
Watch, 25 July 2002, Volume
2, Number 27
UKRAINE:
Chief
prosecutor vows to fight corruption in police, courts
-- BBC Monitoring Service 30 Jul 2002
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Website
Updates
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publications.
New information on Ethics
page.
New
links including
link to the Yugoslavian new website Clean Hands
New
Discussion Topic - Success and failure
stories
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Check for updates about The 11th International
Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC)
--
25-28 May 2003, Seoul, Korea. |
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