EU Anti-Corruption Initiative (EUACI)’s Post

I have had the opportunity today to address to the Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs (CIVEX) of the Comitetul European al Regiunilor . I have shared my views on the proposed Directive on combating corruption. The proposal is in the ordinary legislative procedure, an opinion of the European Parliament being expected on 4th of December this year. Local and regional authorities have a tremendous power to prevent corruption, promote good practices and generate trust in democracy and the rule of law in our communities, across the Union. The regional and local representatives are in daily contact with the citizens’ concerns and demands, among them being transparency, integrity and accountability. In this context, the proposed Directive on combating corruption is relevant for the work of local and regional authorities in several respects: 📝 Article 2 of the Directive advances a definition of “prevention of corruption”. This definition reflects what local and regional authorities have already been doing. This definition helps getting thing further. 📝 Article 2 of the proposed Directive also mentions local and regional representatives in the definition of ‘’national official” and “high level officials”. Mentioning the heads and members of regional government in the definition of the “high level officials” is recognizing the role and responsibilities of these representatives in ensuring integrity. Based on this definition, the European Commission will be able to receive data from the Member States and generate reliable statistics on the impact of corruption on regional level. 📝 Article 3 of the proposed Directive includes relevant measures to prevent corruption. It opens up new measures for local and regional authorities to engage with, such as regular sectoral corruption risk assessment, actions to strengthen integrity of the heads and members of regional government, updated guides on the interaction between the private and the public sector at local and regional level. Also, local and regional authorities have responsibilities in establishing internal reporting channels and protecting whistleblowers reporting corruption offences. 📝 It sets the minimum standard on combating corruption across the Member States. Corruption is not an issue affecting only some Member States. All local representatives are struggling with corruption and there have to be a sense that we all bear the same standard. The same practices have to be regarded and sanctioned in a similar way in all the Member States. Plus, criminals do not refrain to national borders when designing corruption schemes or laundering the proceeds. The CIVEX meeting has been organised in Timișoara by the Consiliul Județean Timiș

Anti-corruption efforts are crucial in combating the negative impacts of corruption, which can range from undermining democratic institutions and economic development to contributing to government instability. Here’s an overview of anti-corruption measures: Preventive Measures. Preventive Measures: These include education on the negative impact of corruption and firm-internal compliance programs. They aim to stop corruption before it starts by promoting transparency and accountability1. Reactive Measures: These involve investigative authorities working to unveil and punish corrupt practices. They are necessary to address corruption that has already occurred and to deter future acts International Efforts: The United Nations Convention against Corruption is the main international anti-corruption instrument. International Anti-Corruption Day is observed on December 9 to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the Convention in combating and preventing it1 Corporate Approaches: Companies are encouraged to develop robust anti-corruption measures to protect their reputations and stakeholders. This includes risk assessment, reporting, and supply chain practices2. Civil Society Role: Civil society organizations play a critical role in the fight against corruption. They work to hold those in power accountable and often engage in collective action to address systemic issues2. Historical Context: Anti-corruption efforts can be traced back to ancient texts like the Code of Hammurabi and the Arthasastra, which condemned bribes to influence civil servants, especially in the judicial sector1. Combating corruption requires a multifaceted approach that includes both prevention and enforcement. It’s a collective effort that involves governments, businesses, civil society, and individuals working together to create a fair and just society. 🌐Debmalya Bhattacharjee

European Parliament Think Tank (EPTT)--Briefing Combating corruption in the European Union [8 December 2023] https://lnkd.in/g4w3k8dT or https://lnkd.in/gHp3SwMa   Corruption is a major challenge for the European Union (EU), with all its Member States affected by the problem to some extent. Its scale, however, is difficult to measure both in Europe and elsewhere. Surveys on the perception of corruption among citizens and experts – such as the Global Corruption Barometer and Eurobarometer surveys – are the principal measurement tool. Since the 1990s, countries around the world have joined efforts to address corruption collectively. This has led to the emergence of widely recognised international laws and standards, adopted in particular by the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations. Mechanisms, such as the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), have been developed to monitor implementation of these rules. The EU has gradually adopted laws addressing a range of corruption-related issues. These include a Directive on the Fight against Fraud to the Union's Financial Interests, as well as directives on public procurement, whistleblowers and money-laundering. However, the legal framework thus created remains patchy, the lack of minimum rules on the definition of criminal offences and sanctions in the area of corruption being one important missing element. The EU has also developed its own tool for monitoring anti-corruption efforts – the EU anti-corruption report – only to abandon it after having issued its first edition. Recently, corruption-related issues have been addressed almost exclusively within the EU rule of law framework, a development criticised by various stakeholders, including the European Parliament. The latter has adopted numerous resolutions on corruption addressing, among other things, the impact of COVID 19, as well as systemic challenges to rule of law and deficiencies in the EU's fight against corruption. This briefing updates an earlier one published in 2022, which built on a study by Piotr Bakowski and Sofija Voronova, published in 2017.

Fri 2023-08-25 04:30 Council of Europe evaluates progress on preventing corruption in the UK MEDIA RELEASE Communications Council of Europe evaluates progress on preventing corruption in the UK Strasbourg, 25.08.2023 – The Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) has published a further compliance report assessing progress made by the United Kingdom towards implementing recommendations contained in GRECO’s evaluation report, published in May 2018, on preventing corruption in central government and law enforcement. In today’s compliance report, GRECO concludes that the UK has implemented or dealt satisfactorily with seven of the twelve recommendations from the 2018 evaluation report. Four of the remaining recommendations remain partly implemented. One recommendation – relating to the establishment of a centralised mechanism for analysing and mitigating risk areas of conflicting interests and corruption in respect of individuals with top executive functions at central government level – has not been implemented. GRECO has asked the UK authorities to report on progress in implementing the outstanding recommendations as soon as possible, and by 30 June 2024 at the latest. The Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) is a Council of Europe body that aims to improve the capacity of its members to fight corruption by monitoring their compliance with anti-corruption standards. It helps states to identify deficiencies in national anti-corruption policies, prompting the necessary legislative, institutional and practical reforms. RECO and the United Kingdom Press contact Andrew Cutting, Spokesperson/Media officer, Tel. +32 485 217 202  

One of the ways we can help MSMEs is by fighting corruption—whether it be by prosecuting corrupt officials or by simplifying bureaucratic processes that act as breeding grounds for corruption. The international community has been fighting corruption since the early 90s, but it was only in 2004 that they united to fight against it, when several countries signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). The UNCAC is the only legally binding international treaty on fighting corruption. As of 2023, there are 189 countries that are parties to the treaty.The UNCAC aims to address corruption through five major areas: preventive measures, criminalization and law enforcement, international cooperation, asset recovery and technical assistance and information exchange. In her presentation at the 2023 International Tax Conference, Kirbee Tibayan, National Program Officer of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) noted several challenges in the implementation of UNCAC in the Philippines. According to her, the country needs to “strengthen its public procurement system, enhance access to information, strengthen transparency of company ownership and management information and improve coordination between the main anticorruption bodies in the Philippines.” But fighting corruption is not just about international cooperation between countries. In my latest book, “Reimagining the World Without Corruption,” which was launched during the conference, I discussed what corruption is, how we measure corruption and how we have been fighting corruption. The book is the culmination of what I learned throughout my studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. In the book, I also forwarded the idea of the “3P Framework of Governance” on how we can truly address corruption. https://inqm.news/chzl

9th December – International Anti-Corruption Day.   International Anti-Corruption Day is observed on December 9 every year. It serves as a reminder for each of us to actively speak out and fight against corruption in our lives and the lives of others. The United Nations has declared this day to bring attention to the need to adopt an anti-corruption stance.   Corruption has existed from time immemorial. Some of the earliest records of anti-corruption texts can be found in the Code of Hammurabi of Babylonia, the Great Edict of Horemheb in Egypt, and Arthashastra in India. These texts spoke about bribery practices among officers of the state and law. The concept of public interest and welfare began to gain stronghold in Western society in the 19th century and more attention was paid to the rising corruption in professional services like the bureaucracy. Corruption was beginning to be understood not just as an unwanted practice but a practice that was levying a great cost in society. Today, Transparency International is one of the most well-known organizational faces tackling corruption in countries all over the world. It was founded by Peter Eigen, a World Bank official who had witnessed the negative impact of corruption in East Africa and decided to start a non-profit to shed more light on the issue. The secretariat was set up in Berlin in 1993. It currently hosts the International Anti-Corruption Conference every two years to convene civil society, bureaucrats, nonprofits and political leaders around special, cross-cutting challenges posed by corruption. It held its first virtual conference in 2020, and it is available to watch online. Transparency International also developed the Corruption Perception Index in 1995 to measure corruption across sectors and practices in various countries and rank them comparatively. The index now collects data from 180 countries. Other organizations like the World Bank also capture corruption data through their Worldwide Governance Indicators.

International Anti-Corruption Day 9 December The UN Convention against Corruption at 20: Uniting the World against Corruption The world today faces some of its greatest challenges in many generations – challenges, which threaten prosperity and stability for people across the globe. The plague of corruption is intertwined in most of them. Corruption has negative impacts on every aspect of society and is profoundly intertwined with conflict and instability, jeopardizing social and economic development and undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law. Corruption not only follows conflict, but is also frequently one of its root causes. It fuels conflict and inhibits peace processes by undermining the rule of law, worsening poverty, facilitating the illicit use of resources, and providing financing for armed conflict. Preventing corruption, promoting transparency, and strengthening institutions is crucial, if the targets foreseen in the Sustainable Development Goals are to be met. The 2023 International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) seeks to highlight the crucial link between anti-corruption and peace, security, and development. At its core is the notion that tackling this crime is the right and responsibility of everyone, and that only through cooperation and the involvement of each and every person and institution can we overcome the negative impact of this crime. States, government officials, civil servants, law enforcement officers, media representatives, the private sector, civil society, academia, the public and youth, alike, all have a role to play in uniting the world against corruption. The 2023 IACD commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). As we celebrate this milestone, we reflect on the positive changes brought about by the collective efforts driven by the Convention. Equally crucial is our examination of the remaining gaps that require attention to ensure that this mechanism continues to strengthen in the years ahead.

Corruption still rampant as ACC reveals shocking K700million of seized assets In a shocking revelation, the Anti-Corruption Commission - ACC - of Zambia has revealed that it has seized assets worth over K700 million due to flourishing corruption in the country last year, despite the Government’s commitment to combating corruption in all its forms. The staggering amount of assets seized is a stark reminder of the deep-rooted corruption that has plagued Zambia for years and has resulted in a significant loss of public funds. According to the ACC, the seized assets include motor vehicles among other properties. The Commission stated that these assets are believed to have been acquired through illegal means and are therefore subject to seizure. ACC Head of Corporate Communication Timothy Moono said, that during the year 2023, the commission received a total of 1,037 reports of suspected corruption. “Out of these cases, a total of 463 were non-corruption-related. While 574 reports contained elements of corruption, only 541 were authorized for investigations.” “11 reports were referred to relevant authorities for action, 8 were complaints authorized for corruption prevention exercise, 2 were not authorized, and 12 were still under deliberation by the close of the year.” Meanwhile, Moono said the commission closed a total of 183 investigation cases and recorded only 38 arrests in 2023 adding that the commission also recorded 17 convictions and 5 acquittals in 2023. He added that the estimated value of assets or properties seized by the commission in the course of investigations stood at K756,452,853 stating that by the close of the year, a total of... Follow the link to read the full article https://lnkd.in/diMNR6qT #corruption