Network of Anti-Corruption Specialists

Romania’s constitutional court recently ruled that part of the provisions mandating the country’s National Integrity Agency (NIA) were unconstitutional. In the past two years, almost 1,000 top officials have been checked, with around 50 cases of wrongdoing proven in court. Around 100 members of parliament are currently under scrutiny. The European Commission had included the NIA’s activity among the benchmarks of the EU’s ‘co-operation and verification mechanism’, whose basic purpose was to keep pressure on Romania to continue rule-of-law reforms after accession. Speculations have it that the EU’s diminishing leverage has produced a climate in which the desire not to disclose certain details of public interest has taken the upper hand again. Read the whole story in a recent article in the European Voice.

An interesting debate is taking place in Canada where the Board of Internal Economy has decided not to allow the Auditor General to conduct a performance audit of Parliament. MPs justify the decision by the fact that the audit would be beyond the scope of the Auditor General’s mandate. Critics say that the decision is not favourable to the image and reputation of parliamentarians, especially given that the Auditor General has audited the Parliament in the past. See a recent article on the issue published in The Hill Times.

The United Nations Public Administration Network  (UNPAN) website hosted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs  (UNDESA) has posted the compendium for widespread circulation to all government and legislature entities as well as relevant development organizations  having involvement and/or an interest in mostly pre emptive anti corruption procedures developed through a methodology targeted at “hot spots/red flag” identification. UNPAN  has also posted the compendium to its FACEBOOK site.

A coalition of 20 pension fund investors and fund managers (led by some of the world’s largest pension fund groups, including CalSTRS) with assets of US$1.7 trillion (all signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment) have contacted 21 major companies in the defence, construction and other sectors in 14 countries to reveal the measures they have in place to avoid bribery and corruption in business with their suppliers. They have asked the companies to explain whether their anti-corruption management systems adhere to international reporting frameworks developed by the International Corporate Governance Network and the UN Global Compact.