A recurring narrative in media coverage of the ongoing political turmoil in the Middle East is that corruption has been a major driver of the protests. In the wake of the revolution in Tunisia, one major Western media outlet trotted out the most classic of corruption metaphors, the fish that rots first from the head,…
We’re in the bittersweet position of announcing that we will no longer be accepting expressions of interest for 2011 summer research associate positions (our polite term for internships) here at Global Integrity. We unexpectedly (and happily) have some existing research associates staying through the summer, and are literally out of desks to house anyone beyond…
The Wall Street Journal’s Corruption Currents blog just blew my mind with this news item (paywall): The [US State] department recently amended its procurement regulations to allow foreign nationals to handle acquisitions of $25,000 or less, but only in countries with a score of at least five on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, an…
Eight ex-army officers were recently sentenced to life in prison for killing unarmed members of the Montoneros rebel group during Argentina’s Dirty War. A court in Chaco province concluded a nearly year long trial with convictions against Gustavo Athos, Horacio Losito, Luis Alberto Patetta, Aldo Martinez Segon, Jorge Daniel Carnero Sabol, Ricardo Guillermo Reyes, German…
A judge’s appointment in Albania can come with a price tag in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and this might not be the scariest part. In a judiciary where bargaining for favors among judges is part of the decision-making process, corruption no longer originates mainly from outside the system but also within its legal institutions.…
(Thanks to guest blogger Renata Avila for this post) Transparency and anti-corruption safeguards in key institutions comprising the Guatemalan justice system – from the supreme court to prosecutor general to the country’s criminal forensic labs – are highly inefficient, ineffective, and lacking both material and human resources to fill their mandate, according to a new…