Financial Transparency Coalition

LONDON – Transparency of Libya’s oil wealth must be a key priority of Thursday’s negotiations over the country’s future, said Global Witness today. The meeting, which is to be co-chaired by UK Prime Minister David Cameron and France’s President, Nicholas Sarkozy, could mark a crucial step along the path to future peace and prosperity in Libya.

A new online game, "Angry Anna" takes the popular smartphone game "Angry Birds" and replaces the titular birds with Indian corruption crusader Anna Hazare. Created by an India-based group, the game features Hazare and other anti-corruption figures being launched with a slingshot in an attempt to topple corrupt politicians. While the piece is largely intended as some light-hearted fun, it may well turn out to be something more than a way to pass some time on the internet. It can sometimes be hard to illustrate the importance of the issues the Task Force deals with, especially because these issues are...

As Libya prepares for the future, what are financial centres doing to stop the flow of stolen assets from dictators? The following is adapted from a speechmade by Transparency International’s vice-chair, Akere Muna, at the UN public service forum in Dar es Salaam, United Republic of Tanzania. If corruption, especially money laundering and bribery are to be tackled, we need to see action not only from developing countries, but also countries that are home to major financial centres. Here in Africa there is wide recognition that poor governance is one of the biggest barriers to sustainable development, what is missing is recognition...

As many of our readers know, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is under assault by the Chamber of Commerce and some members of Congress.  This valuable statute prohibits domestic companies from bribing foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business opportunities abroad and has a purposefully broad reach, extending to any company operating globally with securities registered in the U.S. It should go without saying this kind of corruption undermines the integrity of foreign governments and competitive business practices internationally.  In spite of this, the Chamber of Commerce wants to “reform” the statute so corporations can more easily...