By Marta Erquicia

Peer reviews by a committee of experts were undertaken as part of the monitoring process of the five countries implementing the in the areas of government procurement, government hiring, whistleblower protection and specific acts of corruption that should be classified as crimes. Part of the information informing these reviews was questionnaires filled out by civil society parallel to those completed by the government.

Transparency International has had a leading role in this process since its beginning. National chapters and other civil society organisations from the countries reviewed and presented their reports to the committee of experts.

Transparencia Venezuela, TI’s chapter in Venezuela, was prevented by its government from presenting its report on the country’s compliance with the IACAC at this last OAS meeting in June. This represented a strong intervention in the official process for participation at the OAS. The censored report is based on official governmental information and shows that no steps have been taken to fulfil the convention.

Transparencia Venezuela and TI’s international secretariat urged the OAS to recognise this violation and defend civil society’s right to participate in the legitimate process to follow-up on countries’ commitments. The OAS has had the opportunity to intervene since December 2006, when Venezuela began its efforts to block the report by Transparencia Venezuela.

Other civil society organisations from across the Americas have also raised their voices in support of Transparencia Venezuela and civil society more generally to their governments and the OAS.

By Georg Neumann

Lúcio Vaz, a journalist from the Brazilian newspaper Correio Braziliense, exposed one of the largest parliamentary corruption cases in the country’s history. The case involved the diversion of state funds for the fraudulent purchase of ambulances in a region of Brazil with no health services. Vaz shared first prize with a series by a group of 11 journalists from the Colombian newspaper Semana about the penetration of paramilitaries in national politics, which caused upheaval in the country. The phenomenon, called “parapolitics”, showed how the alliance between politicians and paramilitaries resulted in electoral strategies to guarantee victory for the paramilitaries’ political allies. More information can be found at: www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases/2007/2007_06_26_investig_journalist_tilac

By Georg Neumann

People attending expressed that they are committed to the fight against corruption as individuals. Some wanted their corporations or organisation to be seen publicly standing against corruption. The walk against corruption was designed to raise awareness about corruption and to raise funds for the "Siaguru Endowment Fund;" a trust fund named in honour of TI PNG's founding Chairman Sir Anthony Siaguru. The proceeds of the walk - K92,000 (US $31,194) will be put toward developing a large capital base to support funding of the operations of TI PNG.

“It is our vision that this event will eventually become a national event with people in every urban centre in PNG walking to express their anger and disapproval of corruption" said Mrs. Emily Taule, TIPNG's Executive Director.

The walk was scheduled for one week before Papua New Guinea’s Parliamentary elections from 30 June through 10 July. The last elections in 2002 suffered from strong irregularities with electoral rolls inflated as much as 300 percent especially in remote areas. According to Mike Manning, Director of TI PNG, this didn’t just include dead people but people who have never existed, adding that toddlers and babies are routinely enrolled as voters. Manning said that Transparency International is trying to have observers in all of Papua New Guinea's 109 electorates through the use of volunteers from its Community Coalition Against Corruption, to expand the influence of civil society on this and future elections.