Gordon Brown vows to show that British MPs are “worthy of public trust” as UK law-makers debate new measures to address high-level abuse of public expense accounts. Wednesday, Brown announced that all MPs’ receipts from the last four years will be individually reviewed. Brown promised that MPs will have to re-pay any claims deemed to…
More creepiness in Guatemala — a Twitter user is arrested by police. Following Sunday’s murder of a prominent Guatemalan lawyer who claims (via a beyond-the-grave video) that he was assassinated by the President and the First Lady, and today’s growing protests in the capital city, we read that a Twitter user in Guatemala has been…
Disclosure: Global Integrity is currently advising the Vice-President of Guatemala on transparency reforms. “If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom with help from Gustavo Alejos [the President’s private secretary].” Those are the opening words of a video message recorded by a Guatemalan lawyer who was shot…
Syful Islam reports for the Global Integrity Report: Bangladesh.Rawayt Selim (not his real name) may seem to be a typical student at the Department of International Relations at the University of Dhaka, the oldest university in Bangladesh. What sets him apart from other students, however, is how he got there: Allegations by authorities claim that…
Is kicking lobbyists out of the White House the best way to keep the U.S. government’s massive stimulus spending free of corruption? Maybe not. The good folks over at the Sunlight Foundation have been doing a terrific job of tracking the debate around how much lobbying is appropriate – or not – when it comes…
In the last couple decades, Latin American countries have sadly seen more than a few presidential corruption cases, most of which have been followed by lengthy dramatic legal processes. Former presidents have been arrested or have run away; charges have been presented, withdrawn and then brought up again; while in some cases convictions have been…