Global Integrity is gearing up for the online release of the Global Integrity Report: 2009 which we will unveil this coming Tuesday, February 23rd. While our DC staff is busy finalizing scorecards, notebooks and graphics, our far-flung staff are just as hard at work, spreading the word to their local contacts in civil society, media and government.
The Global Integrity Report: 2009 contains rich, well-sourced details of the existence, effectiveness and citizen access to national-level anti-corruption safeguards in 35 diverse countries. Letting our data speak for itself, below are some of the interesting “nuggets” embedded in this year’s collection of scorecards:
In Uganda, our researcher states that: “in the period between 2005-2007, of all gifts declared [by government officials] none has been by a legislator. Not that they didn’t receive any gifts but because the Inspectorate of Government has no capacity to track all gifts received wherever they are handed.”
In Mongolia, our lead researcher speaks to media bias, stating “there are no significant examples of media outlets remaining separate from political or business interests as a point of brand distinction. News outlets do not appear to count objectivity, integrity, or trust as attributes they must cultivate in order attract consumers.”
In Lebanon, citizens must pay a deposit of approximately 16,000 USD to request to access asset disclosures from the General Prosecutor’s office or the first level investigative judge based in Beirut.
In Azerbaijan, opposition views are fiercely suppressed by government, who even go so far as to ban libraries from subscribing to opposition papers.
In Liberia, ballot security is threatened by high illiteracy rates which allow for people’s votes to be manipulated.
In Venezuela, our lead researcher notes that “one of the most important examples of the influence of the audit agency was the political sanctions imposed on about 200 politicians in the 2008 local and regional elections, which prevented them from running as candidates. Most of them were opposition leaders.”
Watch this space on Tuesday when the Global Integrity Report: 2009 will go live. And keep an eye on our twitter feed, where we will feature more specific findings that jump out of our 2009 data.
— Norah Mallaney and Global Integrity
