Washington DC, Prince George’s County Maryland, and Arlington Virginia: How Transparent are Their Municipal Contracting Processes?
August 4, 2015What are your kids eating at school? Is your trash being picked up regularly? In what condition are your parks? Municipal procurement is where taxpayers most closely see how their money is being spent. This spring, TI-USA and students from the American University School of International Service monitored 21 procurements in Washington DC, Prince George’s County Maryland, and Arlington Virginia using TI-USA’s Civil Society Procurement Monitoring Tool. Read More
World Bank Adopts Key Transparency International Goals in New Procurement Policies
July 31, 2015The World Bank funds 1,800 procurement projects to the tune of US$42 billion in 172 countries, often in challenging environments. It is therefore important to have strong measures to counter corruption. Last week, the Bank announced a new procurement framework that includes many of the recommendations and suggestions Transparency International and Transparency International – USA have been advocating. Read More
107 groups urge World Bank to end anonymity in public procurement (FCPA Blog)
June 9, 2015Transparency International-USA along with Transparency International, Global Witness, the Open Contracting Partnership, Oxfam, Save the Children and 101 other organizations sent a letter to the World Bank Monday asking the Bank to collect and disclose the identity of all legal entity bidders on Bank-financed contracts. Read more
World Bank wants to stop anonymous firms winning contracts (Reuters)
June 8, 2015The World Bank wants all corporate bidders on bank-funded projects to publicly reveal their true owners as a way of tackling fraud and cronyism in government contracts.
“We are asking the World Bank to take a leadership role to prevent the corruption and cronyism that exists in government contracting when politically-connected officials and companies are able to hide their connections behind the screen of an anonymous company,” said Shruti Shah of Transparency International-USA. Read more
Is Your Anti-Corruption Program Effective? (Ethisphere)
May 8, 2015What can companies do to mitigate the impact of a possible industry sweep or a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation? Maintaining an effective and risk-based anti-corruption compliance program before an FCPA probe is the ideal strategy. Companies should supplement internal reviews with independent external reviews on a regularly planned basis. External reviews can help a company take a fresh look at an existing program to learn about weak spots and areas for improvement, benchmark its program against other companies, or undertake a more comprehensive risk assessment. Read more
Treasury Urged to Scrutinize Foreign Real-Estate Buyers for Money-Laundering Risk (The New York Times)
March 10, 2015In a broad show of support for increased scrutiny of foreign real estate buyers in the United States, 17 nonprofit organizations on Tuesday urged the Treasury Department to require that the real estate industry verify the identities of buyers and screen them for potential money-laundering risk.
Shruti Shah, a vice president for one of the organizations, Transparency International-USA, said in a telephone interview, “The U.S. should not be providing a red carpet for dirty money.” Read more
Hidden Buyers of High-End Condos
February 13, 2015Anonymous companies’ ability to conceal their illicitly obtained gains fuels corruption, breeds instability and diverts resources from those they should benefit.
The first step in stopping this opaque global transfer is the establishment of registers open to the public listing the ultimate owners who benefit from each company, so that reporters, citizens, law enforcement and others can hold those who misappropriate assets to account. Read More.
Is Your Anti-Corruption Program Effective?
December 31, 2014What can companies do to mitigate the impact of a possible industry sweep or a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation? Maintaining an effective and risk-based anti-corruption compliance program before an FCPA probe is the ideal strategy. Most companies have adopted anti-corruption compliance programs but many need to invest resources in ensuring that their programs are effective. Read More
Co-written by Claudia J. Dumas, President and CEO of Transparency International
TI releases 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index: Action needed in the U.S. and other countries (FCPA Blog)
December 3, 2014Transparency International released its 20th edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) today, available here. The 2014 CPI ranks 175 countries based on the perceptions of public sector corruption. The overall poor scores of countries in the CPI highlights the need for coordinated global action to ensure that corrupt officials are not allowed to conceal and enjoy their illicitly obtained assets in the global financial system. Read more
OECD enforcement grades are in (and still aren’t pretty) (FCPA Blog)
October 23, 2014For the tenth year in a row, Transparency International (TI) has assessed enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention (the Convention) and the results are disheartening.
TI’s Progress Report, available here, makes recommendations for both Governments and the OECD Working Group on Bribery, including providing adequate funding and support for enforcement, continuing the rigorous OECD monitoring program, and collecting and publishing data on mutual legal assistance requests relating to foreign bribery. Read more