TI Malaysia issued a Press Release in support of a statement made by the Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, pointing out that firm action should be taken against the government officers responsible for malpractices and corrupt practices, as highlighted in the Auditor General's 2006 Report. TI Malaysia’s President, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, stated on behalf of TI Malaysia that the government should fully explain to the Rakyat (House of Representatives) the measures taken to ensure that there is accountability and prudent management of tax revenue.

The Council for the Korea Pact on Anti Corruption and Transparency International’s (K-PACT) Symposium – Vision of a Transparent Society – was held on 18 October by TI South Korea, bringing together all actors in the areas of anti-corruption and transparency. The aim was to contribute to a transparent presidential election, encourage active implementation of the K-PACT by the participating bodies and demonstrate objective verification of the implementation of the K-PACT. The Symposium also sought to initiate public promotion of K-PACT internationally, to improve the K-PACT and to identify future tasks. The symposium was a platform for opinion leaders from the public, political and private sectors as well as civil society.

Transparency International Slovakia (TI S) has participated in an ALAC project with financial support from the European Union since February 2007. Their participation was part of a larger project “Strengthening the Role of the Local and Regional Government Watchdog Organisations in the Fight against Corruption”. Running under the name “Poradňa Transparency International Slovensko”, ALAC Slovakia has been providing advisory services for those in need. Most of the questions brought to the ALAC Slovakia have dealt with municipal questions. The ALAC Slovakia has to date handled 90 cases.

TI Zambia is proud to announce the upcoming launch of an Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) on 6 November. TI Zambia will work in partnership with other legal aid providers if it comes across cases without a strong corruption element as well as with three local civil society organisations and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for cooperation on law enforcement training. For more information, please visit TI Zambia’s website.

Co-authored by Larry Haas, a consultant for the Water Integrity Network Secretariat (WIN-S), Leonardo Mazzei from the World Bank and Donal O’Leary, a senior advisor for Transparency International and with a forward by Cobus de Swardt, TI’s Managing Director, the paper deals with standards in communication and governance in infrastructure projects.

Participants included the President of the Republic, Mr. Bamir Topi, as well as hundreds of judges, prosecutors and lawyers from the Vlora Judicial District, representatives from Transparency International in Berlin, UNICEF and other international organisations, with Mr. Kreshnik Spahiu, director of TIA/ CAO and member of the High Judicial Council presiding. This was the first time that the President of the Republic gave a speech in front of the judicial representatives and held a discussion with them regarding the challenges of the reformation of the system. Mr. Topi also gave some very clear messages regarding the necessity to fight corruption from within the system as well as to establish a citizen-oriented justice system in the courts.

A new study prepared by TI Czech Republic (TIC) focusses on how one could implement a debarment system in the country. The advantages and disadvantages of such a concept are discussed in the paper, with the aim of supporting public and professional discussion on the use of blacklisting in public contracts. In particular, questions such as what blacklists are, how they may be used in public procurement, whether it is possible to implement them and what must be done to do so are answered. Proper setup for blacklists and prevention of misuse are also addressed.

TI Bangladesh published a paper on the subject of the credibility and sustainability of the civil society organiastion sector in Bangladesh, calling for self-regulation as the field experiences robust growth in the country. In the interest of continued success, credibility and sustainability of the sector issues relating to governance and corruption are dealt with.

A study was undertaken to assess the nature and extent of governance failure, and recommendations for producing transparency and good governance in the sector are given, produced from both desk work and fact finding on selected civil society organiastions. Among the problems discussed are the role of the governing body decision making process, financial transparency, human resource development and grievance procedures, accountability to service recipients, donors and government project implementation, supervision and monitoring, and secrecy of information.

On 11 October, two representatives of the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI), Arsim Gjinoci and Ismet Kreyziu, visited the Transparency International Secretariat (TI S) in Berlin to get acquainted with TI’s anti-corruption work. Their main focus was on the advocacy and legal advice work being done in South Eastern Europe. The capacity-building visit was funded by the German Foreign Office through Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe funds.

To prepare the KDI to set up an Advocacy and Legal Advice Center (ALAC) in Kosovo, TI S invited the two representatives of KDI to learn about how to set-up and operate an ALAC. Further topics of discussion between TI S and KDI were TI’s global priorities, its experience with projects related to Access to Information and National Integrity System Studies.

The Ministry of Finance and the Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA) attended a signing ceremony for a Memorandum of Understanding that reflects their strategic Partnership for Transparency in Lebanon. The signing ceremony was held on Thursday 25 October.

During the ceremony, the Ministry of Finance presented the measures that it has undertaken to promote transparency, including the publication of the 1993-2006 fiscal accounts.

Transparency International Zimbabwe (TI Z) celebrated World Teacher Day on 5 October, highlighting the importance of education and declaring it a basic human right. TI Z marked the day with a call to arrest the decay in educational standards for all and the lack of teachers in the country, drawing attention to newspaper articles with titles such as “Children stranded as teachers desert in droves”. TI Z celebrated the work of educators who persevered under severe conditions and brought attention to the challenges in attaining transparency, accountability and integrity in the education system and the costs of corruption.

Latvia has been rocked by popular protests after the Latvian government sacked the top anti-corruption official. Transparency International Latvia took action in October as it stood outside the Parliament building each day that Parliament held a plenary session, in order to protect the rule of law. TI Latvia says this will continue until such time as the government withdraws its decision to sack Aleksejs Loskutovs, director of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB). This demonstration started on 24 October, in cooperation with the Latvian Association of Free Labour Unions, and was preceded by one demonstration on 18 October.

Poder Ciudadano (PC) carried out several monitoring activities in the days prior to the 28 October Presidential elections in Argentina, as part of the chapter’s efforts to strengthen democracy. PC presented the results of their media monitoring, which showed the imbalanced coverage to candidates and how this limits the information available to voters. Poder Ciudadano also published and widely disseminated a brief guide with key information about the procedures that both authorities and voters should observe during the day of the elections. On the elections day, PC set up telephone lines through which more than 500 complaints were received. The chapter is now using this information to advocate for reforms in the electoral system. To read more, visit the chapter’s website at: www.poderciudadano.org/

TI and Ashoka – the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs – recently identified new opportunities for collaboration as anti-corruption is increasingly a key issue for social change. Joint actions began in Latin America. In cooperation with TI, Ashoka convened a meeting in Ushuaia, Argentina, from 15 to 17 October, in which Ashoka fellows working on transparency issues in Latin America exchanged experiences, identified common challenges and determined future actions to strengthen transparency at local level. Based on TILAC’s experience, TI provided methodological support to guide the meeting and input to discussions of national chapters’ initiatives. Other actions between TI and Ashoka will be developed during 2008. For more information, please contact Andres Hernandez at: ahernandez@transparency.org

On 10 October, TI representatives met in Berlin with the President of Panama, Mr. Martín Torrijos, and the Vice-President, Mr. Samuel Lewis. The meeting was an opportunity to follow up on the “Guatemala Declaration for a Corruption Free Region”, signed by President Torrijos and the heads of States of the Central America countries during the XII IACC in November 2006. President Torrijos agreed on the importance of translating this commitment into concrete actions, discussed different anti-corruption measures taken by his government and welcomed TI’s invitation to promote the follow up to the Declaration among the Central American Presidents. Other issues discussed were the need to develop measurement tools at national level to complement international assessments, the importance of identifying achievements and challenges in the fight against corruption, and the government’s efforts to ensure transparency in the Panama Canal enlargement.

To contribute to a more transparent and upright electoral process for the 28 October regional elections in Colombia, TI’s chapter Transparencia por Colombia launched the website votebien.com last July. In the month leading up to the elections, the website received more than 40,200. It included updated information on candidates’ experience and proposals for 15 major cities and 11 provinces as well as information on campaign finances, to help citizens make an informed vote.

More than 90 press releases were published and multimedia reports were elaborated to inform about the main factors threatening transparency during the electoral process. This project is a follow up to similar activities carried out in 2002 and 2003 in partnership with national media and other organisations.

To read more about the project, please go to: www.transparenciacolombia.org.co/vcontent/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167&Itemid=21

Transparencia Paraguay established contact with municipal governments in Paraguay in order to implement the Corruption Risks Map tool in local administrations. In one of the municipalities, San Lorenzo, this work has been concluded and serious problems were found: conflict of interests, failures in the annual program of public contracting, administrative deficiencies, shortcomings in the Operative Unit for public contracting, irregular use of the service provision contracts, among others. The final report includes recommendations and guidelines to be implemented to tackle these issues. To read the final report, please see: www.transparencia.org.py.

Transparencia Mexicana (TM) and the Federal Judiciary Council signed an agreement to strengthen civil society monitoring of acquisitions processes and public works. The Council is responsible for the management, surveillance and discipline of the Federal Judicial Power and is in charge of judicial careers.

During the singing of the agreement, the President of the Supreme Court, Mr Guillermo Ortíz Mayagoitia, called for a review of the acquisitions program of the Federal Judiciary and asked to focus efforts in the priority areas that will be identified by TM. Mr Ortíz mentioned that after acquisitions, the second area to be monitored will be the selection process of more than one thousand federal judges.

To date, Transparencia Mexicana has monitored more than US $30,000 million of procurement projects in Mexico.