The Raise Your Voice for Justice campaign, organised by Participación Ciudadana (PC), Transparency International’s national chapter in the Dominican Republic, brought together more than 1,500 people to celebrate the National Day Against impunity in Bank fraud on 26 August 2006.

This campaign aimed to raise citizen awareness of the most prominent cases of bank fraud, and to demonstrate how these cases of fraud impact the economic wealth of the country as well as individuals’ daily lives. It is part of the actions developed by PC in its transparency in public management programme.

Transparencia por Colombia, the Colombian Federation of Municipalities and the National Planning Council have developed the first Index of Municipal Transparency (ITM), or Indice de Transparencia Municipal. The Index measures whether Colombian municipalities have institutional conditions in place to favour transparency. The Index marks the municipalities on a scale from 0 to 100 points, where 100 indicates a high level of transparency. The average results of the ITM show a generally low level of transparency of 50,02 points. For more information (in Spanish), please see: www.transparenciacolombia.org.co/new//transparencia/publico/indicedeintegridad/indicemunicipal.html

Philippe Montigny, President of ETHIC intelligence and member of TI France introduced the anti-corruption, anti-money-laundering, and due diligence certifications developed by ETHIC Intelligence.

The ETHIC Intelligence certification process is a voluntary step undertaken by any company that wishes to ensure that its integrity measures comply with international good practices. As part of a self-regulation policy, this certification process allows a company to bring in an independent third party to demonstrate the existence and quality of such measures. For more information please go to: www.ethic-intelligence.com

TI Switzerland thanks its former president, Philippe Lévy, for his tireless service and dedication to the organisation and its goals. In his eight years as head of the chapter, Mr Lévy led the way in building coalitions with a broad range of actors to address key anti-corruption issues and succeeded in establishing a strong, reputable and sustainable TI chapter in Switzerland. Dr. Anton N. Fritsch, former ABB Switzerland executive, will replace Mr. Levy as President. Dr. Fritschi was elected by the TI Switzerland Board of Directors and took up the post of president on 1 October 2006.

Transparency International Papua New Guinea is implementing a project on voter education, ahead of the national elections in early 2007. The Voter Education and Democratic Governance Awareness Project (VEDGAP), funded by the United Nations Development Programme, uses drama to provide information about elections, to encourage voter participation and to improve political representation. Papua New Guinea’s leading drama groups put on live performances in public places. Each presentation is followed by a discussion about transparency, accountability and good governance.

For more information please see: content.undp.org/go/newsroom/october-2006/voter-education-papua-new-guinea-20061016.en

On 13 October, representatives of the companies participating in the Global Corporations for Transparency International (GCTI) initiative gathered in London for the 2nd annual briefing. Companies represented included Ernst & Young, Nexen, Norsk Hydro, Procter and Gamble, and Shell.

Chaired by Jermyn Brooks, the meeting provided an opportunity for TI to discuss the pivotal role of business in addressing corruption with private sector donors. Daivd Nussbaum and Cobus de Swardt spoke to activities at the TI secretariat and Neill Stansbury and Graham Rodmell spoke on corruption in construction and engineering and national chapter perspectives.

For more information on the GCTI, please visit: http://transparency.org/support_us/support/gcti.

The U4 Expert Answer on Gender and Corruption was recently used as a basis to make changes to the Netherlands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs Handbook on Good Governance, specifically in the Guidance note on Corruption. To read U4 Expert Answers, please see: www.u4.no/helpdesk/main.cfm .

Transparency International Korea released a National Integrity System (NIS) country study, analysing the institutions, sectors and activities that contribute to integrity in society. The study notes positive steps made by Korea such as introducing integrity into legislation and institutions, including the Anti-Corruption Act, the Public Service Ethics Act and The Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption (KICAC). The study, however, emphasises the need for deeper political commitment. Specific recommendations called for improving monitoring mechanisms, strengthening law enforcement and empowering anti-corruption institutions. For more, please see: www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2006/nis_korea