A survey launched by the TI contact group in Ethiopia in March finds that people in the capital Addis Ababa are optimistic that corruption will decrease in the coming two years. The survey entitled Corruption Diagnostic Baseline Survey (CDBS) was conducted in October and November 2008. It aimed to gather information on citizens’ confidence in public institutions in order to evaluate the quality of services rendered by these institutions.

According to the findings of the survey, corruption was ranked the fourth most important issue for the public, right after issues such as the cost of living, unemployment and housing. Respondents gave the first three ranks for the best service delivery to the registration process for public schools, telephone and electricity installations.

Procedures involving judicial records received the lowest quality improvements ranking. According to the survey, the procedure for obtaining a drivers’ license and or register property, and processes involving judicial records and taxes tied for first and second place respectively with average alleged bribes of four to five hundred Birr 500 and 400 birr (US$ 35-45).

The full report can be downloaded here.

One year after last year’s elections in Kenya and the formation of the Grand Coalition, TI-Kenya has published a survey, which seeks to assess Kenyans’ perceptions of the country’s progress in the fight against corruption. The survey reveals that the belief is that the government seems to be losing the fight against corruption. The survey also shows that many Kenyans believe the government has the power and ability but not the will to tackle corruption. The Parliament is seen as failing to uphold the common good. Most Kenyans surveyed would like to see more and conclusive prosecutions of individuals implicated in major scandals; and that the re-emergence of post-election violence is viewed as highly likely should the current administration fail to effectively institute anti-corruption reforms.

The survey was conducted amongst a random sample of 1000 respondents between February and March 2009. More information available via www.tikenya.org

Over March reports of massive corruption allegedly involving the Harare City Council [Financial Gazette] prompted the TI Zimbabwe to call for a series of measures to determine the magnitude of corruption, as well as to prevent further cases. Critical measures recommended include an audit into all Council assets and investments/revenue projects; setting up a clear system of public disclosure on the performance of these investments and all revenue generation projects of Council. Furthermore, it should determine a clear and robust accountability system, their implementation and power of oversight committees; clear risk management controls and mechanisms to arrest corruption at the very early stages for managers; and empower councillors to take relevant measures to fill the legislative gaps and counter corruption.

More information at: http://www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases_nc/2009/2009_03_09_zimbabwe_city_council

The TI chapter in Colombia, Transparencia por Colombia, has entered into a special work partnership with Bavaria, the largest drinks manufacturer in Colombia. This should eventually see the implementation of the chapter’s business ethics training programme across the conglomerate’s value chain.

The Rumbo Empresas training package uses a participative, hands-on approach. It is designed to be easy to implement and tailor to a variety of business contexts, comprising of three core modules and six optional extras. These extras cover topics such as ethical leadership, governance in family businesses and ethical conflict resolution, while the core modules provide a solid grounding in: 1) Assessing the Business Climate; 2) Business Ethics; and 3) TI’s flagship private sector tool “Business Principles to Counter Bribery”.

An initial pilot will see staff in 60 of Bavaria’s franchises receiving training using the Rumbo Empresas model, with a view to extending its implementation throughout Bavaria’s value chain in the near future.

Ahead of the presidential elections held on 15 March, in which Mauricio Funes of the left-wing Frente Farabubdo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) emerged victorious, the TI national contact in El Salvador, Funde, successfully got the two leading candidates from both the ruling conservative and leftist opposition party to publicly sign manifestos on transparency and anti-corruption. Alejandro Salas, Director of the Americas at the TI Secretariat, attended the event, which generated a lot of media attention and put TI’s issues firmly on the national agenda in the run-up to polling.

Unfortunately the final versions of the manifestos were much diluted in comparison to Funde’s original proposal, which both candidates refused the to sign. This reluctance highlights the importance of the organisation’s work in raising the bar on transparency and accountability standards in El Salvador. The real work of ensuring President Elect Mauricio Funes delivers on his promise only begins now, commented Marco Rodríguez of Funde.

On 9 March, the TI chapter in Venezuela joined with its long-term partner the Proacceso coalition to present a recently-updated report. The report diagnosed the ease of access to and quality of public information in nine different areas: economy, trade, the service sector, oil, health, HIV/AIDs, security and defence, education and human rights. Experts from each of these sectors identified the key gaps in access to information in their respective areas, along with the specific obstacles encountered when making public information requests. The link between access to information and the effective exercise of public oversight is clear. Given the report’s conclusion – that Venezuelans do not currently enjoy full access to reliable information – the breakdown of this link was stressed as an urgent problem for the exercise of citizens’ rights.

TI India signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the water conservation NGO Jal Bhagirathi Foundation to implement a water agreement. The agreement, drafted on the lines of a Development Pact, is expected to work as a tool to empower citizen to hold their politicians to account.

The pact intends to encourage citizens to further their involvement in decision making that affects their immediate livelihoods. Where most citizens are involved in one time political choices such as voting, these pacts looks for a greater citizen engagement in decision making processes within local development issues. It applies a successful anti-corruption tool, the TI Integrity Pact, traditionally used for addressing corruption in public contracting, to prevent corruption in development. In practice, the organisations will agree on pacts between the water user forums, grassroots forums organised by the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, and the local panchayats, the local administration bodies working for the good of the village.

The concept of the Development Pacts is based on the idea that disadvantaged citizens will join efforts to expose corruption only when they benefit directly from it at social, political and economic levels.

TI Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the District of Multan represented by Commissioner Syed Muhammad Ali Gardezi. The district has received Rs 13.5 billion (US$ 250 million) from the Prime Minister of Pakistan under the Multan Development Package, as well as Rs 500 million (US$ 7.5million) from the Punjab Government. The MoU aims to ensure the spending of the funds takes place in a transparent manner, the quality of the construction is assured at an economical cost and timely implemented. As part of the MoU, TI Pakistan will assist the Multan Division in the preparation of tenders and develop a Procurement Manual. The manual will include all standard bidding documents on procurement of works, goods and services, based on national and international standards and regulations. TI Pakistan will not be involved in the process of awarding the contracts.

More information can be found here.

In March the TI chapter in Armenia launched an Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) in Yerevan. The opening ceremony in Yerevan enjoyed extensive media coverage and brought together representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations.

Prior to that, in December 2008, two other ALACs were opened in Lori and Shirak Marzes. Since their launches all ALACs have received numerous complaints. The ALAC in Yerevan recorded more than 70 clients in March 2009 alone, as opposed to 12 during the previous three months. Citizens may report on corruption cases to the Yerevan ALAC through the 0 8000 1110 toll-free hotline, to the Gyumri ALAC through the 0 8000 1121 and to the Vanadzor ALAC through the 0 8000 1112.

The ALACs aim to enhance the capacity of citizens and organizations to readdress their grievances and stimulate system-level reforms through legal advice and assistance in formulating and channeling the citizens' corruption-related complaints to respective government agencies. These include analysing complaints, identifying loopholes that promote proliferation of corrupt practices, as well as developing policy proposals and organising campaigns for institutional reforms. In addition, the ALACs plan to produce quarterly online reports.

In January, TI Belgium organised a well-visited workshop under the theme of “Banks and Ethics” in Brussels. Gathering managers from the banking sector, the Belgian Federation for Financial Sector and academics, the starting point of the workshop was the financial crisis, its causes and impact, and the necessity to regulate the banking and financial sectors. Potential solutions looking at the ethical implications were discussed, trying to reconcile the fundamental problem of the asymmetry of information between the banks and their clients and the fact that, in many cases, the interests of the banks and their clients can be different.

For more information see the workshop report here (in French)

To review corruption risks in procurement procedures, TI Estonia organised a round table in January in Tallinn, Estonia. The significant growth in EU structural funds allocated to Estonia will increase public procurements in local municipalities, and potential risks for corruption. To prevent corruption risk, better awareness in local municipality is needed, as well as improving the organising of procurement, says Asso Prii, Chair of TI Estonia. The event was attended by representatives from local government bodies, law enforcement agencies, national government institutions and state procurement agencies.

More information can be found at: www.transparency.ee

TI Georgia launched an ALAC on 16 February. The ALAC provides legal assistance to citizens’ request in corruption-related cases. Within a month of opening the ALAC they received 91 calls and visitors and opened up 19 cases. 33 per cent of hot line users were invited for the preliminary consultation with ALAC legal staff. So far the majority of corruption related complaints concern corruption in the judicial sector and property right violation.

The ALAC is open from Monday to Friday and operates a toll-free hotline (822 009 888). Reported corruption cases will be analysed by a legal advisor who will provide advice and assist in preparing applications for submissions to the appropriate institutions and monitor the further development of cases.

Additionally, the ALAC aims to provide a statistical analysis of all applications with regard to sectors, state institutions and regions in which corruption-related complaints are the most common. It will keep track of those state institutions which respond to complaints most rapidly and those that do so belatedly or not at all. The aim is to ensure that any evaluation of the nature of corruption in Georgia will include the everyday experiences of Georgian citizens. The ALAC also plans to prepare legislative recommendations for the government and civil society.

TI Deutschland has published the results of its scientific working group in the first cross disciplinary analysis of the Siemens corruption case. The book integrates contributions from different research fields such as political sciences, law, sociology and economics, each looking at specific questions regarding the Siemens case on the background of the respective research area. With its scientific results, the book aims at sharing practical suggestions for the fight against corruption. The book (in German) can be ordered here.

In March, the Irish National Integrity System country study was published by TI Ireland, which reports that the country suffers high levels of lawful or “legal” corruption. It also ranked local government, political parties, and Ireland’s public contracting system, as the sectors most vulnerable to fraud, corruption and the abuse of power. The research looked at the risk of corruption and abuse of power in 16 sectors, including government, politics, business, civil society and the media and is the most wide ranging analysis to be ever conducted on the issue in Ireland.

The report points out that Ireland is regarded as one of the countries faced with very low levels of “petty corruption” or political “grand corruption”. However, the study concludes that “Ireland is regarded by domestic and international observers as suffering high levels of ‘legal corruption’. While no laws may be broken, personal relationships, patronage, political favours, and political donations are believed to influence political decisions and policy to a considerable degree”.

The study makes over 30 recommendations to tackle a problem that TI Ireland claims contributed to the world financial crisis and could be costing the Irish economy an additional €3 billion each year in lost business revenues and foreign investment.

More information on www.transpareny.ie.

The Lithuanian Map of Corruption published by the TI Lithuania in March, reports that both experts and respondents continue to consider corruption as one of the most serious problems in the country. According to the survey results, more and more Lithuanian residents tend to think that it is possible to solve their problems by paying a bribe. Nearly two-thirds stated that they would be willing to pay a bribe. Nepotism, bribery and abuse of office are seen as the main forms of corruption in Lithuania, according to the survey. In their evaluation of possible corruption within institutions, all groups of respondents mentioned the Seimas (the Lithuanian Parliament) the Government and political parties as being among the five most corrupt institutions in the country. Health sector institutions are also mentioned as institutions where citizens most frequently paid bribes. Business people most frequently mention town and district municipalities and county head administrations.

Half the respondents believe that over the past five years the level of corruption in Lithuania has increased dramatically. However, on a positive note, an increasing number of Lithuanian citizens are willing to take part in anti-corruption activities. They also believe that whistleblowers – people that report about possible acts of corruption – are brave and civically active people.

The surveys were conducted between September 2008 and February 2009, questioning a total of 1,050 citizen, 509 civil servants and 500 heads of companies.
For the complete results please click here.

In February, TI Moldova presented a research report looking at the regulations and perceptions around the issue of Conflict of Interest. It reports that the current law is interpreted erroneously and the concepts of “conflict of interests” and “personal interest” are not understood correctly by civil servants. According to respondents, there are cases such as using public offices for personal purposes, or employing staff on the basis of family and friendship affiliation, and of intimidating personnel for reasons of age and politics. The report “Approaching the conflict of interests: regulations and perceptions” is based on a sociological research conducted among employees of seven public institutions. The Moldovan parliament passed the law on conflict of interests and the code of conduct for civil servants in 2008. A draft law on the Main Ethics Commission is currently being prepared.