The grant agreement between DFID and Transparency International Secretariat (TI-S) has been signed and the implementation of the 30-month project is in the start up stage. A launch workshop for the project was hosted by TI Lebanon (LTA) in Beirut from 9 – 11 October. TI Algeria (AACC), TI Morocco (TM), LTA and TI-S participated in the workshop. TI Palestine (AMAN) was unfortunately not able to participate due to visa delays and a temporary closure of the border crossing.

The workshop allowed the participants to discuss and debate the objectives, activities and challenges of establishing an ALAC in their respective countries. Each Chapter had the opportunity to present their national context and to describe how they foresee the ALAC to operate. Similarities and differences regarding the opportunities and constrains in the different countries in the region have been discussed together with the need for the exchange of documents and experiences within the implementation of this project.

In the coming three months, ALAC staff will be recruited and trained and the centres will be equipped. The four ALACs will be located in Palestine (Ramallah), Lebanon (Beirut), Algeria (Khenchela), Morocco (Rabat). Outreach activities will be implemented in order to target remote fringes of the population.

It has been agreed that the four NC involved in the project shall reconvene in Baku, Azerbaijan, in March next year in order to share their experience of the start up phase of the project and to contribute and benefit from the established experience of the Azerbaijani ALAC.

TI-S contact: Nicolas (nseris@transparency.org).

The start-up workshop in Johannesburg took place as planned. In three days, representatives from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa discussed the objectives and key outcomes of the programme as outlined in the project proposal; its importance in relation to their strategic frameworks; ideas on to use this work on access to basic service delivery as a way to engage more on issues relating to poverty and development; and the opportunities offered by the programme to strengthen overall institutional NC capacity through peer exchange and joint learning. Participating chapters will now implement a 3-month (minimum) inception and planning phase (until 31 December 2008) that includes mapping of existing in-country expertise and pertinent stakeholders, a NC capacity self-evaluation, and development of a detailed implementation plan and budget for the operational phase of the programme (January 2009 to July 2011).

The seven chapters implementing the Africa Education Watch (AEW) programme met in Berlin (6-8 October) for an advocacy training and planning workshop. The preliminary results of the assessment phase were discussed with a view of identifying key advocacy messages and priority for action. Stakeholder analyses were conducted and a format for the final national assessment reports was agreed upon. The remaining months of 2008 will be used to write the reports, as well as to develop advocacy strategies for the national and regional levels.

The results of the AEW assessment phase were advertised during a workshop on corruption in education management which was held at the 13th IACC in Athens, Greece.

The newsletter of Transparency South Africa takes its name from one of Africa’s most respected figures, Julius Nyerere (1922 – 1999), known widely by the name of his former profession, Mwalimu, which means teacher in Swahili. The newsletter will provide a space for members and supporters committed to eradicating exploitation and oppression, hunger, abuse of power, corruption and lack of accountability in society. The newsletter is particularly concerned at the nexus between corruption (lack of transparency, lack of accountability, mal-governance, etc.) and sustainable development solutions.

The current issue is available online at http://www.tisa.org.za/

Transparency International Zimbabwe welcomed the historic power-sharing deal reached by the three political formations under the mediation of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.
TI-Z called upon the political leadership to swiftly implement the 11 September agreement to ease the long suffering of the people of Zimbabwe. TI-Z joins the Human Rights NGO Forum, NANGO and other progressive civil society organizations in Zimbabwe in calling for transitional justice as a critical step towards national healing and restoring democracy and good governance in Zimbabwe.

TI-Z is particularly concerned with institutional reform with a view to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in national institutions of governance. Pillars of national integrity like the Judiciary, Parliament, the Auditor General’s office, the Attorney General’s office, Civil society, media and the electoral commission must be reformed to guarantee legitimacy, independence and efficient discharge of their mandate.

Between the 6th and 13th September, TI Chair Huguette Labelle conducted a successful trip to South America, visiting Poder Ciudadano, TI’s Argentinian chapter, Transparencia Paraguay and Transparencia por Colombia.

While in Argentina, Labelle met with many high-level public officials, including the Vice-President and the country’s Chief Public Prosecutor, who has been nominated for the 2008 TI Integrity Award. In Paraguay, she had the honour to meet with President Lugo, who has displayed a high level of commitment to fighting corruption as a means to tackling inequality in the country since his inauguration in August (see interview in Transparency Watch). During Labelle’s stay, Lugo signed a pact with Transparencia Paraguay which seeks to make the government’s internal administration more transparent through the introduction of some of the overarching principles of the anti−corruption struggle into the norms guiding the country’s executive branch.

The 10th anniversary celebrations of the Colombian chapter Transparencia por Colombia provided Labelle with an opportunity to deliver a well received speech reflecting on the efforts and achievements of the chapter during its 10 years in existence. The final phase of Labelle’s trip saw her meet with the Colombian president, Álvaro Uribe, along with the managing directors of leading Colombian businesses.
Labelle’s trip attracted extensive media interest throughout the week thanks to her personal presence, the excellent reputation of the three respective national chapters and the high priority currently afforded to the theme of corruption by the Argentine, Colombian and Paraguayan press.

The Guatemalan and Argentinean chapters, Acción Ciudadana and Poder Ciudadano, in collaboration with the Chilean civil society organisation Participa, released in October the first Regional Index of Parliamentary Transparency. At present the index is limited to the three countries in which the organisations are based. The index places Argentina in the lead position with 40%, while Chile obtained 32% and Guatemala just 17%. Significantly, none of the 3 countries reached the 50% mark. These percentages relate to the level at which the country’s constitutional and legislative norms comply with 62 indicators that signal levels of legislative transparency, access to information and citizen participation, such as whether or not public records of deputies’ votes, governmental commissions’ minutes and deputies’ travel expenses are kept. It is hoped that the index, which is already an example of regional cooperation and sharing of expertise, will facilitate comparative analysis across the Latin American region and, above all, help establish best practices and regional standards on parliamentary transparency and accountability. In the Guatemalan case, it is hoped that civil society will be able to continue with the momentum generated around the successful passing of the Freedom of Information Law, in order to push for the implementation of the index’s recommendations for improvement, especially on access to information issues.

More information (in Spanish) here: http://www.prensalibre.com.gt/pl/2008/octubre/14/269677.html

On 30 September, six organisations and an individual member have signed accords that formalise their working relationship and signal their commitment to join the TI movement as a national chapter. This development follows two days of meetings and capacity-building workshops, and marks the culmination of months of increased cooperation among Bolivian civil society organisations and TI. As a result of this joint work, Transparencia Bolivia was created.

Regional Director of the Americas Department Alejandro Salas and Programme Coordinator Zoe Reiter have expressed their delight with the development, commenting that this truly pluralistic coalition of organisations from across Bolivia’s divided regions is particularly positive given the context of national unrest stemming from President Morales’ controversial constitutional reform programme amidst which the meetings took place.

As part of a wider project designed to strengthen civil society participation in current institutional reforms, Participación Ciudadana, the TI Chapter in the Dominican Republic, has released its second study monitoring the introduction of electronic government in the country.

The study uses a points system to rank government websites according to how accessible they are to users and how well they fulfil the criteria set down in the Freedom of Information Law, which makes specific mention, among others, to the role of the internet in facilitating the submittal of requests for information. The ranking system also allows for an objective and comparative evaluation over time and between institutions.

Overall, the study reports that, with an average score of just 11.33 out of 30 points in the “services offered” category, government websites offer few possibilities for interactivity and, significantly, for completing administrative procedures online. Although almost all the public institutions surveyed meet with the minimum requirement for electronic governance (to have a web portal) and that certain government sites, such as that of the Customs Office, are highly advanced, there is much room for improvement.

For more information, contact: p.pena@pciudadana.com

Participación Ciudadana, the TI chapter in the Dominican Republic, has released an initial evaluation of corruption risks in the Dominican government’s flagship social welfare programme that will provide support to an estimated 1,600,000 Dominican citizens living in conditions of poverty.

The evaluation of the governmental programme focused on a mapping of the limitations and weaknesses in its management structures, which helped the chapter formulate recommendations on methods to improve the regulatory norms governing transparency levels, and to reduce corruption risks throughout the programme’s life-cycle. Some of the recommendations included the incorporation of corruption-prevention mechanisms, such as a Council of Ethics into the programme’s operational plans, a greater role for community organisations, and training for programme staff in transparency principles and obligations.

More information and the complete report (in Spanish) can be found here.

Following around 10 years of debates and much advocacy effort over the last months carried out by Acción Ciudadana, the TI chapter in Guatemala, the country’s first Freedom of Information Law was approved last month. Passed by a large majority, the law guarantees public access to information regarding the administration and spending of public resources and provides for sanctions for non-compliance. While expressing their delight that the citizens will has finally been heeded, advocates, including TI representatives, remain critical, pointing out that what has now become Decree 57-2008 in fact represents only the formalisation of a right long recognised by the Guatemalan Constitution and yet denied to citizens in practice. The public and civil society are called on to be alert to proper compliance with the law once it comes into force at the beginning of 2009.

Elsewhere in the region, Uruguay also celebrated the passing of a Freedom of Information Law, approved on 7 October.

In cooperation with the Mexican government’s Civil Service Secretariat ( Secretaría de la Función Pública), Transparencia Mexicana organised a high profile meeting to launch the activities of a new working group on international conventions. Held on 29 and 30 September, the meeting was made up of delegates from the federal and local governments and civil society representatives. The meeting took place alongside the “Latin American Regional Conference: Commitment and Cooperation in the Fight against International Corruption and Bribery,” an event organised by the Mexican Government, the OECD, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank.

This and future meetings held by the working group will not only act as a mechanism for strengthening implementation and monitoring these anti-corruption conventions to which Mexico is signatory, but also as an important contribution to the development of Transparencia Mexicana’s project to create a unified System of Indicators.

For more information: info@transparencia.mx.org

President of Transparencia Mexicana, Federico Reyes Heroles, is to chair the panel of judges that will decide the winner of a national competition, run jointly by the chapter and the Mexican Civil Service Secretariat. A prize of up to 300,000 Mexican Pesos (US $25,000, €19.000) will be awarded to the citizen who finds the most frustrating, time-consuming and above all useless procedures required by the Mexican federal, state and municipal administrations. Reyes Heroles underlined that excessively complicated and obscured administrative procedures lend themselves to corruption, with citizens perhaps more likely to pay bribes in order to save time and trouble, not to mention feeling mistreated and disrespected. The Civil Service Secretariat has assured that the government is committed to reforming those procedures appearing high on the public’s hate-list, as part of a project that aims to reduce the number of bureaucratic procedures to 3,000 by 2012, from the staggering 4,200 currently existing in the federal administration alone. Citizens have until 31 October to submit entries and the winner will be announced in December.

For more information (in Spanish) please click here.

TI Fiji applauds the decision of Judge Isikeli Mataitoga of the High Court for his decision on 17 September to convict two officials on corruption charges and his call for an increase in the maximum sentence for abusing positions of trust to 14 years imprisonment. This decision is a step towards greater prosecution of white collar crime and grand corruption.

The chapter reports that corruption and other white collar crimes cost the country more in terms of lost opportunities for development than petty crimes, and diverts money from schools, road building and other critical projects.

TI Malaysia congratulates the Malaysian Government on its ratification of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). The convention was signed on 18 September by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim on behalf of the government. The chapter is encouraged by the ratification and hopes that Malaysia will adopt stronger policies based on greater political will and a stronger commitment to fight corruption by the government.

In August, TI Sri Lanka published an analysis of the consequences of neglecting the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, under which the president appoints the Constitutional Council and several independent commissions.
Six seats on the Constitutional Council were vacated in March 2005 when the terms of the incumbents expired. Although five replacements were named, the sixth seat remains vacant after political disagreements. Yet the president continues to make appointments in violation of the 17th Amendment. In July 2006, the government moved to form a parliamentary committee to review the 17th Amendment. The select committee submitted an interim report after nine meetings but, on 6 May 2008, the president adjourned Parliament. This has become one of the most critical unresolved constitutional and governance issues in the country at present. While recognizing the need to improve the 17th Amendment, TISL believes it is the president’s constitutional duty to make appointments to the council immediately and allow for the return of the constitutional governance of the country.

More information can be found here.

A chapter on corruption will appear in Armenian students’ social science textbooks for the first time. Ninth graders will learn what constitutes corruption, what forms it can take, its causes and consequences, as well as how to combat the problem.

In an exciting development, the book will refer directly to TI, calling it a leading international anti-corruption organisation and including prominent coverage.

This July, the European Commission froze €500 million (US $631 million) of aid to Bulgaria to sanction what it considered high-level corruption, organised crime and severe mismanagement of EU funds.

In response to the criticism, the Bulgarian government requested to meet with TI. The first meeting, an intensive roundtable discussion, took place in Sofia on 24 September 2008. The roundtable was attended by a number of cabinet ministers and leaders of key public institutions. TI’s regional director gave the keynote address. Several other civil society organisations – including TI Bulgaria – participated in the debate, which was chaired by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Sofia. Key issues discussed were conflicts of interest, political party financing and transparent public procurement. Further cooperation between TI Bulgaria, TI-S and the Bulgarian government is expected.

Following US President Bush’s promise on 3 September to give Georgia one billion dollars in aid and the EU’s commitment to aid reconstruction in the country, TI Georgia has begun implementing a screening process of the aid to be given to Georgia. This process aims to analyse the total amounts, the disbursements and the general uses made of the money.
TI Georgia emphasises the need for transparency in aid distribution and calls on President Bush, the leaders of the European Union and multilateral and donor agencies to ensure that their humanitarian efforts follow the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.
The chapter affirms that international aid to Georgia will only be effective if allocation and implemention processes are transparent and open to legislators, interest groups, civil society representatives and Georgian citizens for input and oversight.

For further information, please click here.

Kazakhstan’s first Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) has made encouraging progress in its first six months having been approached with over 469 complaints by citizens from all regions of Kazakhstan.

The ALAC has shown the chapter the necessity of helping Kazakhs to overcome their passiveness and fear in the face of corruption. To provide accurate and practical information to citizens, such as how to pursue complaints and what authorities to turn to, remains one of the top priorities of TI Kazakhstan.

Following the success of the first ALAC, a second centre was inaugurated in Astana on 16 October.

For more information, please contact Natalia Malyarchuk at natali_m@transparencykazakhstan.org.

Mongolia’s chapter in formation recently organised a course to help judges prevent corruption in public procurement and the judicial system in conjuction with the Mongolian General Council of the Courts and the Capital City Administrative Court.
Organised at courts in all 21 provinces and the capital city, the 25 training sessions reached 330 of the country’s 429 judges, 327 law clerks and other court personnel as well as representatives of local NGOs.

Mongolian judges and court personnel report that they are now more aware of the forms of judicial corruption and the damages it causes, as well as the active role judges must play in fighting it.

The training drew heavily on TI materials. The first half provided general information on TI, Mongolia’s draft conflict of interest law and how to prevent corruption in public procurement, from TI’s Handbook on Public Procurement. The second half was based on a presentation of the Mongolian version of TI’s 2007 Global Corruption Report.

A translated version of the 2007 GCR has been given to the Mongolian School of Law for incorporation into the curriculum in order to enhance students’ awareness of the negative impact of judicial corruption on the country as a whole.

On 1 October, Transparency-Serbia sent two pieces of anti-corruption legislation to committees in the National Assembly. The first of these amendments seeks to simplify the appointment the head of the national anti-corruption agency and give the agency wider authority in implementing the national anti-corruption strategy.

The second, concerting political financing, is more limited in nature for procedural reasons. However, the legislation submitted by Transparency-Serbia could be used to clarify the role of the anti-corruption agency in investigating the financial reports of parties and to introduce precise deadlines for submitting annual reports.

A new guide, published by TI and the Instituto Ethos, is aimed at companies concerned or unclear about their role in political financing and the impact of donations on democratic procedures. The guide was first prepared for the 2008 municipal elections in Brazil, but is a useful point of reference for any instance in which the private sector finances elections. The manual also contains examples of how TI’s Business Principles for Countering Bribery and the Business Pact for Integrity and Against Corruption expanded on by the Instituto Ethos in 2006 can be used to create greater transparency with regards to private sector involvement in electoral processes.
A PDF is available in Spanish here.

The ‘SME’ edition includes model anti-bribery principles for companies with fewer resources of time, money and people, as well as providing practical guidance for developing anti-bribery programmes that suit the size and structure of smaller enterprises.

The SME Edition can also be used by larger companies to encourage SMEs in their supply chain to implement no-bribes policies and practices.

For more information, please contact: SMEbusinessprinciples@transparency.org

To read the report, please click here.