Financial Transparency Coalition

In many ways their request was simple. Bread. Freedom. Social Justice. Those are things most of us can agree are human rights. And in January of 2011 when protestors took to the streets in Egypt, and chanted “Aish, Horreya, Adala Egtema’eya” (“bread, freedom, and social justice”) they were calling not just for political reform, but for economic and social reform, as well. And while their slogan reflects the complex interdependence of those forces, none of them can be attained with chanting alone. The advantage of political uprisings is that they provide quick headlines. They may focus attention on a singular,...

Vietnam and the World Bank recently held the first Viet Nam Anti-Corruption Intiative, or VACI.  The Initiative encouraged the public—whether ordinary citizens, NGOs, or private business—to develop proposals to help combat corruption in their communities.  VACI then selected 34 promising ideas, and awarded a total of approximately $450,000 to help fund the implementation of these plans in the coming year.  It is hoped that this initiative will be repeated in 2013. In order for pervasive corruption to be combated effectively, public support for anti-corruption initiatives is essential, and this year has seen people around the world taking a stand against graft in their...

BERLIN/DEAUVILLE – Transparency International (TI), the anti-corruption organisation, is calling on the Group of Eight countries to back up its Deauville Summit commitment to aid the fight against corruption in Arab Spring countries with concrete action to ensure recovery of stolen assets, and prevention of their flight in future.

In the wake of Egypt’s revolution that forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down on February 11th, the country’s interim government has been making a lot of changes, including taking action against the former administration. The government imprisoned a host of powerful former statesmen under Mubarak including Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, sons of the former president, all of whom authorities detained for 15 days and questioned about corruption and abuse. Also imprisoned were Ahmed Nazif, the former prime minister; Zakaria Azmi, the president’s right-hand man; and Fathi Sorour, the former speaker of Parliament. In April, Egypt’s...