Anti-Corruption & Fraud - Weekly Industry News

Comment: Australia must strike a higher note on anti-corruption, by Fleur Johns and David Hertzberg, Posted on SBS

Australia’s anti-corruption legislative framework is meek compared to the US and the UK, with concerning implications for our global business dealings and diplomatic relations. Renewed claims before the Victorian Supreme Court that Leighton Holdings engaged in corrupt practices, allegedly paying a $42 million kickback to Iraqi officials, have once again called into question the scope and effectiveness of Australia’s anti-corruption laws. [Read More…]

Wide-ranging corruption scandal hits Polish ministries, Posted on TheNews.pl

A former deputy minister of the interior in Poland is among a group of officials to have been arrested on bribery charges in the “biggest scandal in the history of Polish kickbacks”. His arrest concerns contracts for the purchase of IT equipment for the ministry of the interior, as well as for the country’s Police Headquarters (KGP). A top official at Poland’s statistical office (GUS) has also been arrested. “This is the biggest scandal in the history of Polish kickbacks,” spokesman for Poland’s anti-corruption unit (CBA) Jacek Dobrzynski told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. [Read More…]

Eastern Partnership: is fighting corruption in eastern europe compromised? By Nienke Palstra, Posted on TransparencyInternational.eu

The European Union summit planned for 28-29 November in Vilnius, Lithuania was supposed to see four eastern European countries embrace a reform process that leads to greater integration with western economies and progress in the fight against corruption. [Read More…]

Major UN conference underscores universal stake in ending corruption, Posted on UN News Center

30 November 2013 – The rule of law, governance, profits and livelihoods all suffer from corruption’s corrosive effects, a senior United Nations official said at the conclusion of the world’s largest biennial anti-corruption gathering, which this year took place in Panama City. “We all have a stake in ending corruption,” a declared John Sandage, Director of the Division for Treaty Affairs of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), underscoring that the resolutions passed during the Fifth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption would help lay the groundwork for strengthening partnerships to prevent and combat the scourge. [Read More…]

NZ tops Global Anti-Corruption Perceptions Index, Posted on Voxy

The Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin today released its annual Global Corruption Perceptions Index. The Index, which ranks the public sector of 177 countries across the world, has consistently shown New Zealand as a country with a strong reputation for clean government. In 2013, New Zealand ties with Denmark for first place due to strong access to information systems and rules governing the behaviour of those in public positions. [Read More…]

Corruption list puts Spain six points lower on scandals, Posted on BBC News

A key global survey of international perceptions of official corruption has put Spain down six points to 40th place after a series of recent scandals. Only Syria, in the middle of a civil war, lost more points in the survey, carried out by the Berlin-based Transparency International. The list of 177 countries put Denmark and New Zealand top with 91 out of 100. The UK is ranked in 14th place, up from 17 last year, with a score of 76 points out of 100. [Read More…]