NACS provides senior specialists, and multidisciplinary teams consisting of lawyers, accountants, auditors, training specialists and management consultants. A selection of our specialist resources is presented below:
Fred Schenkelaars (Netherlands) is a Chartered Accountant with eight years of hands-on experience in private sector audit with a multinational corporation (Philips’ Electronics), seven years in public administration of the Netherlands, and 25 years with several United Nations agencies. Active in the field of development for over 30 years, he has been the global manager of UNDP’s Programme for Accountability and Transparency, during which tenure (1995-2000) he developed CONTACT, the UN’s diagnostic tool for financial management and integrity systems. From 2000, he has been conducting numerous quick scan, diagnostic and formulation missions, and has organised training workshops in financial management and anti-corruption assessment. From 2004 onwards, he specialised in governance training, anticorruption tools development and integrity auditing, applying his experience in hands-on assignments in Sierra Leone, Guyana, Tajikistan, the People’s Republic of China and Iraq. Recently, Mr. Schenkelaars worked as key expert in an EC funded project, in Bulgaria where he was in charge ot anti-corruption tools development, and carrying out anti-corruption audits in two line-ministries.
Thomas Kerscher (Germany) is an economist specialising in capacity development. He has worked on governance programmes in Asia, Africa and Europe for more than fifteen years, both as a manager and consultant, supporting government, the judiciary, parliaments and civil society. The main focus of his work is on building multi-stakeholder coalitions for fighting corruption, and conducting (joint) governance assessments as a means for determining development needs. Thomas has completed a study programme in process consultation, and has trained in systemic consultation and strategic planning and business reengineering. He designs change processes, and facilitates action planning events as fundamental sources for learning. Thomas has worked intensively with the European Commission, the UN, and bilateral agencies, and has substantial experience in promoting aid effectiveness.
Daniel Blais (Canada) is a professional accountant/auditor and law graduate. He has been involved in international financial oversight mainly with SAIs (Supreme Audit Institutions) during and after a career in academia as professor at the university level. Cumulating some 28 years of work as both staff and consultant in several multilateral and bilateral institutions, he has held a post with the United Nations Secretariat in which he was involved in accountability and transparency needs assessment, activity formulation, and activity monitoring as well as project management and evaluation issues. Subsequently he was regional project co-ordinator with UNDP’s Programme for Accountability and Transparency (Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS). He has been involved in capacity building and strengthening field work in governance and institutional development themes of anti-corruption, aid accountability, auditing at the legislature and executive levels as well as civil society components. He has developed a proficiency for anti-corruption auditing techniques and procedures within the executive and legislative branches of government. Mr. Blais has worked in over 50 countries in all regions of the world and has covered all government/political systems from the Westminster to the Latin models.
Ana Zagorac (Serbia) is a journalist and author. She holds an M.A. in Political Sciences and Journalism from the University of Belgrade (Serbia), and a postgraduate degree in Media Management from from the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) under the European Journalism Fellowships Programme. Ana has more than fifteen years of work experience with news magazines, radio and television, as a reporter, editor and commentator. She brings in an large network of leading media professionals across Europe. Ana has covered extensively issues of international policy and economy, and transparency and accountability in the public and private sectors and has organised media campaigns for press freedom. Together with Stephan Russ-Mohl from the University of Lugano, she is co-author of of the book „Journalism” (Novinarstvo).
Fredrik Eriksson (Sweden) is a lawyer specialised in the area of corruption prevention, with particular focus on public sector legislation/regulation enabling transparency and providing control possibilities establishing positive incentives. He has worked on reviewing and revising laws and regulations pertaining to access to information, public service, public service principles, conflicts of interest, public procurement, lobbying, and medical drug approval. So called anti-corruption laws and strategies, as well as sector corruption risk assessments are part of his experience. Mr. Eriksson has worked as a consultant on anti-corruption related projects for a wide range of multi- and bilateral aid agencies providing project leadership, legal technical expertise as well as training. Currently, he is working on the issue of illicit money flows in support of a Nordic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is expected to result in a new international convention on transparency in economic activity, as well as a new normative regime on beneficial ownership and principles for double taxation treaties.
Alexander Kashumov (Bulgaria) is a lawyer with substantial experience in access to information, transparency and anticorruption, public administration reform, freedom of expression and human rights. He has been active in advocacy, litigation, legal analysis and training activities related to the NGO Access to Information Programme in Bulgaria (1997-2009) and has been Head of its Legal Team, which provided over 4000 legal advices (to citizens, journalists and NGOs) and support to more than 150 access to information and transparency court cases. He made presentations in many international forae in Europe and America in the course of various training activities for public administration/ judges and NGOs in Bulgaria, Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia, Argentina and Chile. During 2007 – 2008 he was involved in a EU PHARE-funded project in Bulgaria: “Strengthening the Capacity of the Anti-Corruption Commission to counteract corruption in the Public Administration and Judiciary” as a key legal expert for the application of best EU practices in anticorruption monitoring and enhancing anticorruption education practices (Phase I). Mr. Kashumov was also a key expert for co-operation among partners including state anticorruption institutions, media and NGOs (Phase II). In 2008 he was awarded a top attorney recognition by the prestigious magazine Legal World.
Jos de Wit (Netherlands) is a Chartered Accountant, Certified Fraud Examiner and Certified Anti Money Laundering specialist with more than 30 years of professional experience. Jos worked in the internal audit department of Philips Electronics, and later moved to the banking industry. He was responsible for setting up banking and insurance activities for the ING group in Poland and Bulgaria from 1991 to 1996, and later in the Caribbean region. Based on his experience with US systems for governance and compliance, he moved to the head office of ING Group to set up a global compliance department, where he had global responsibility for compliance and compliance related subjects. Since 2004 Jos has been working with the Council of Europe in anti money laundering projects in Ukraine, Moldova, Macedonia and Russia. He lectures at the Universities of Maastricht and Frankfurt in compliance and compliance related subjects.
Slagjana Taseva (Macedonia) specialises in issues related to anti-money-laundering, financial crime, corruption and organized crime. Professor Taseva holds a PhD degree in law from Sts. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Macedonia, where she started her academic career. Having taught at various academic institutions she was appointed Director of the Police Academy in Skopje in 2004. In 2006, she became Vice-President of the Association of European Police Colleges. From 2002 to 2007 she was President of the State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption. From 2006 to 2007, she was a member of the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (Moneyval) in Latvia and Poland. In 2007 she became President of Transparency International in Macedonia. In 2010, she was appointed to the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) as Member of the Academic Board. She has worked in various countries in Europe and the CIS.
Salleppan Kandasamy (Malaysia) is qualified in Public Administration with more than 25 years in the office of the Auditor General of Malaysia and has acquired extensive experience in auditing of public sector entities at all levels – central, provincial/state and local governments, as well as quasi governmental bodies. The range of activities covered by these entities includes the complete spectrum of public services such as education, health, defense, taxation, rural development, construction, asset management, etc. In addition, he has some eighteen years of experience at the international level working mainly with four United Nations organizations, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations Headquarters, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations Development Programme. He has either held senior positions or led and managed the internal audit, evaluation and investigation functions in these multilateral organizations. He has had experience in managing and modernising systems for accounting, budgeting and procurement, and internal control and oversight.
Harrie Rozema (Netherlands) is a business economist and chartered accountant who joined the European Court of Auditors after 10 years of experience as an auditor and management consultant with one of the big audit firms in the Netherlands. He has been actively involved in the development of the methodology of financial and performance audits in the public sector and has carried out such audits in EU Member States as well as in a number of developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He has carried out assessments of the quality of financial management systems and their internal controls as well as evaluations of the effectiveness and efficiency of development programmes and projects in the area of humanitarian aid, rehabilitation, the environment, economic cooperation, food security and agricultural development. More recently he has supported SAI’s (Supreme Audit Institutions) on the auditing area of budget support.
Marijana Trivunovic (USA, Croatia, Serbia) has more than 10 years experience on public integrity, good governance, and anti-corruption issues ranging from national and sectoral diagnostic assessments, to anti-corruption policy development, to the implementation of anti-corruption measures, including civil society approaches, to programme evaluation. She has recently focused on the challenge of capacity development of anti-corruption agencies, particularly with regard to their corruption prevention functions, and the implementation of preventive anti-corruption obligations set by the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). She has worked throughout Central and Eastern Europe and Africa, specializing in the Caucasus and the Balkans. As an independent consultant since 2006, she has worked with major international organisations, such as the Council of Europe, the OECD, and the UNDP, and with donor agencies such as the Swedish Sida and DfID.
Ivo Balinov (Bulgaria, Canada) is currently working with the Parliamentary Centre of Canada as Senior Programme Officer, Parliamentary Development. During the last eight years he has managed and provided input to parliamentary development projects in Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, North America and Southeast Asia, including Canada, Cambodia, China, Pakistan, Serbia and Russia. Mr. Balinov is a legislative strengthening expert with experience and expertise in legislative processes, public budget processes, parliamentary oversight, parliamentary administration, and engaging the public in the work of parliaments.