Financial Transparency Coalition

BERLIN (Transparency Int’l)—With governments committing huge sums to tackle the world’s most pressing problems, from the instability of financial markets to climate change and poverty, corruption remains an obstacle to achieving much needed progress, according to Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption released today.

NAIROBI—Kenya lost about Sh156 billion between 2000 and 2008 to illicit outflows of capital perpetuated by wealthy businesspeople and multinationals. These resources can finance about 70 per cent of Kenya's 2010/11 development budget of Sh222 billion.

Hewlett-Packard, the titanic computer-making company which has been caught up in several recent PR scandals (bribery included), was sued yesterday by their own shareholders for breaking federal anti-corruption laws. Bloomberg reports:

From 2007 to 2009, HP violated the federal anti-kickback law by paying government vendors “influencer fees” to win contracts to design information technology systems, according to the complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, California. The company is also under investigation for possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Current and former directors at HP “consciously condoned...

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently evaluated the United States on its effectiveness in implementing the goals and standards outlined by the Anti-Bribery Convention. The sizeable OECD report overall applauds the U.S. for its current efforts and offers a few areas for improvement. First, some background. The U.S. foreign anti-bribery laws are outlined by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which Jimmy Carter signed into law on December 19, 1977. The FCPA makes it unlawful for persons and entities to “make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining...