NewsBin - Global Anti-Corruption

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries Project: Updates

The Anti-Corruption and Integrity in the Arab Countries (ACIAC) regional project worked with UNDP Country Offices in Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia to raise awareness about corruption and the role of stakeholders in fighting it.

In Jordan, ACIAC and UNDP worked with the University of Jordan and the Anti-Corruption Commission to engage students in the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day under the slogan of “Jordan’s Youth against Corruption”. In Lebanon, ACIAC and UNDP worked with six university teachers to engage their students, hailing from various disciplines, in a series of outreach activities that were held in five leading universities.

In Tunisia, the ACIAC worked with UNDP to hold a special session on the linkages between anti-corruption and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 16 on “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”.

Country case studies on citizen engagement

UNDP Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN) and Integrity Action have released four case studies on the benefits of citizen engagement and closing the feedback loop.

Demanding transparency from local government during road building projects in Azzoun, The West Bank, Palestine. A group of students in the West Bank help encourage local leaders to recognise and address inconsistencies and favouritism during the course of a road building project.

Refuse to be corrupt cafe - Thailand. University students receive knowledge, tools and skills to build integrity in their university and country, and reach out to their neighbours in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

Community monitors accelerate vital development funding for primary schools in Homa Bay County, Kenya. Community people monitor and influence the way local government distributed funds to local schools that were in urgent need of development.

Participatory monitoring to improve performance of government services and promote citizen empowerment: a success story from the Philippines. A local people's organization monitor agricultural subsidies in a municipality in the Philippines.

Mapping corruption risks in Kosovo's education sector

An assessment of Kosovo’s education services finds corruption risks in three major areas: financing, teacher management, and procurement. Released jointly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-International Institute for Education Planning (UNESCO-IIEP), the report also includes recommendations to help prevent the mismanagement of allocated resources and build integrity in the education sector.

The assessment is based on a survey of the education sector, which revealed that corruption is seen as a major problem in schools. It includes a desk review of existing documentation and in-depth interviews with major stakeholders from the central level down to the regional, municipal, university and school levels. Its overall goal is to pinpoint corruption risks in the education sector to create strategies that address the underlying governance and anti-corruption bottlenecks.

http://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/mapping-corruption-risks-kosovos-education-sector-3361

Comparative analysis of good governance for Romania and Moldova

The project ”Bridge of Good Governance” encourages bilateral collaboration and the transfer of good practices between Romania and the Republic of Moldova by monitoring the degree of legislation implementation in priority areas such as access to information of public interest and administrative transparency.

The first step consisted of connecting the platforms romaniacurata.ro and moldovacurata.md.

Working together with experts of the Romanian Academic Society (which coordinates the Clean Romania platform), of the Advocacy Academy (promotor of Coalition 52) and the Association of Free Press from Chisinau (coordinator of the Clean Moldova platform), volunteers from both sides of the river Prut have worked on creating the means to monitor the way in which the freedom of information acts (Law 544/2001 – Romania and Law 982/2000 – Republic of Moldova) have been

observed from the moment that institutions and state authorities have had the obligation to submit activity reports. Both the Romanian and Moldovan side used the same methodology.

It has been checked whether the annual activity reports are published in a visible part of the websites belonging to the verified institutions: ministries, county / raion councils, county / raion capital city halls. Similarly, research has been done into whether the content of said documents contains all of the information required by the law (both the quantity and the quality of the reports was verified).

Read the full story here

<http://www.romaniacurata.ro/comparative-analysis-of-good-government-on-both-sides-of-the-river-prut-common-percentage-of-activity-reports-conformity-with-the-law-22/>

Access the full report in PDF format

<http://www.romaniacurata.ro/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Rezultate-concluzii-si-recomandari_Podul-bunei-guvernari.pdf>

Is It Lawful Under UNCAC to Attach Conditions to Asset Returns?

Article 57 of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), which outlines provisions concerning the return of stolen assets, was the most contentious piece of the entire convention. A straightforward reading of Article 57 appears to require state parties to return assets “on the basis of a final judgement in the requesting State Party” (emphasis added). Often, however, a final judgement is not forthcoming. Article 57 addresses that contingency in its final paragraph, which provides for “agreements or mutually acceptable arrangements, on a case-by-case basis, for the final disposal of confiscated property.” That gives rise to another extremely contentious question, discussed previously on this blog (see here, here, and here): Is it legally permissible for states that confiscate the assets to attach conditions on their return?

Read the full post by Robert Packer, in the Global Anitcorruption Blog. http://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2016/02/25/guest-post-is-it-lawful-under-uncac-to-attach-conditions-to-asset-returns/

Daily Corruption News (Transparency International) - 29 Feb 2016

29 February 2016

Today's top story

Nigeria: Nigeria cuts £8m from state's payroll after non-existent workers removed
Reuters
Nigeria has removed more than 20,000 non-existent workers from the government payroll following an audit, leading to savings of 2.29bn naira (£8.3m) from its monthly wage bill, the finance ministry has said.

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