Tag Archives: corrruption

Identifying Obstacles to a Corruption-Free Business Environment in Zimbabwe

08 Friday Jun 2018

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Photo Credit: Flickr

Zimbabwe’s stunning overthrow of former President Robert Mugabe shocked the world – mostly because the people of Zimbabwe had just cause to oust him for decades. As president of Zimbabwe, Mugabe was so publicly corrupt that he led to the coining of the term “kleptocrat.” Since his overthrow, the new President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made combating corruption one of the priority focuses of his presidency. During his first State of the Nation address in December 2017 Mnangagwa said: “On individual cases of corruption, every case must be investigated and punished in accordance with the dictates of our laws. There should be no sacred cows. My government will have zero tolerance towards corruption and this has already begun.” Zimbabwe’s neighbors can attest to the fact that implementing and enforcing ambitious anti-corruption reforms are nonetheless quite challenging.

For a country with rampant corruption embedded across most business and industrial sectors, it is not surprising that Zimbabwe ranks 157th (out of 180) in Transparency International’s (TI) 2017 Corruption Perception Index, and 159th out of 190 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report, but that does not tell the full story.  Read More...

Working Together to Fight against Corruption

27 Friday Oct 2017

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Photo Credit: IMF (http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/youth)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) emphasized the importance of tackling corruption through its #fightcorruption seminar during the Annual Meeting on Sunday, October 15th. The discussion, led by Sean Hagan, the General Counsel at the IMF, highlighted that combating corruption is a vital component for sustaining economic stability, promoting inclusive growth, and maintaining security in society as well as certainty in the market.

The seminar addressed the diverse impact of corruption through the lens of the IMF and touched on lessons learned from effective efforts to combat illicit behavior.

Corruption is both a moral and an economic problem – in many countries, corruption is a major barrier to poverty reduction. Because corruption infiltrates every sector, it creates macro- and microeconomic ripples that manifest as everything from slow growth of gross domestic product (GDP) to a lack of capital or market access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  Read More...

INL Supports Global Anti-Corruption Efforts

31 Monday Jul 2017

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Photo Credit: Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL)

CIPE Director of Multiregional Programs Anna Kompanek conducted the interview on June 29th at the Washington, D.C. office of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) division at the United States Department of State

Can you introduce yourself and state your role at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) division at the United States Department of State?

RL: I’m Robert Leventhal, Deputy Director of the Office of Anti-Crime Programs. I oversee teams working on issues such as anti-corruption, wildlife trafficking, international crime, as well as a global series of international law enforcement academies.

MT: My name is Marianne Toussaint, I am the Anti-Corruption Team Lead. I manage the team dedicated to anti-corruption affairs; it includes five team members and we focus on global and regional multilateral and foreign assistance programming and policy relating to anti-corruption.

Can you offer some examples of how INL works in the global anti-corruption space?  Read More...

Improving Corporate Governance in Ukraine’s State-Owned Enterprises

03 Friday Feb 2017

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This blog was originally published on the Center for International Private Enterprise’s (CIPE) Development Blog.

On May 1, 2016, the law, On Introduction of Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Protection of Investors’ Rights (No. 289-VIII), came into effect. It introduced a number of new aspects to Ukrainian corporate law including the right to shareholder derivative actions, direct payment of dividends to shareholders, and –perhaps the most relevant to reducing corruption and privatizing state owned enterprises– the establishment of independent directors.

In many developed economies, independent directors serve as a source for ongoing advice for senior management, set the strategic direction for the company, and provide investors (both public and private) confidence that their interests are represented through additional oversight, strategy development, and the scrutiny of major decisions undertaken by management. In state owned enterprises and family owned firms, independent directors serve as additional checks on the company from the perspective of the public or nonvoting family members, respectively, among other functions key to the long-term sustainability of such enterprises.  Read More...

Combatting the Cascading Costs of Corruption

26 Tuesday May 2015

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Corruption imposes significant economic and social costs on development across all sectors, undercutting both democratic governance and economic prosperity. To solve this immense global problem, the development community and the private sector will need to work together to target the sources of corruption

To this end, USAID’s Governance and Rule of Law Program released a guide to anti-corruption programming entitled “Practitioner’s Guide to Anticorruption Programming” earlier this year.

“Sometimes I see that the private sector and NGOs are at loggerheads and don’t see each other’s perspective or how they can work together,” said Kenneth Barden, a key contributor to the guide. This realization, in part, inspired the creation of the Guide in order to, “let everyone know what we’ve learned and build on those experiences – and to think abstractly and to harmonize, get a more focused approach,” said Barden. Read more…