A daily scrapbook of stories from major news media on corruption, bribery and financial crimes
ON THE MONEY TRAIL – Dec 7
There is an increasingly heated debate today about Latin America’s two titans: Does Brazil receive too much kudos for anti-corruption efforts and good governance, and does Mexico receive too much criticism? For all the ugly press Mexico’s murderous drug war gets, Brazil’s homicide rate is actually higher. Global media fawn over Brazil’s economic boom, but the World Bank finds Mexico a much easier place to do business; it earns more in manufacturing exports and is enrolling a higher number of engineering students, Time magazine says.
NEW DELHI - India may be witnessing popular agitation against graft but for the common man there is no respite from the menace, with over 60 percent of slum dwellers in major cities saying that corruption has grown worse in the past year, the Economic Times of India quotes a new study as saying. The 'CMS-India Corruption Study 2012' says the majority of slum dwellers surveyed felt that corruption in public services has grown in the last 12 months. The study was conducted by the Centre for Media Studies.
JAKARTA - A key member of the Indonesian government has been forced to resign over corruption charges, ABC reports. Andi Malarangeng, a former presidential spokesman and member of the leading Democratic Party's advisory board, is accused of channelling kickbacks into the party from tenderers who won government building contracts. He resigned today from his positions in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's party, including that of sports minister. He is the first active government minister to be forced to resign over corruption charges, but the party's former treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin has already been found guilty.
LONDON - Globalisation has made corruption everybody’s concern, the Financial Times writes in a blog. High quality global journalism requires investment. Reading this week’s Transparency International report into corruption it’s easy to conclude that most of the problems are concentrated in emerging markets, far from the business centres of the USA, Europe or Japan. Thursday’s news from Rolls-Royce shows this is a dangerous illusion, it said.
BEIJING -- Internet users in China, where censorship is tough, have won praise for helping expose official corruption, a rampant problem, according to Xinhua News Agency, UPI reports. Chinese netizens, or Internet users, are embracing "online anti-corruption" in a drive to fight wrongdoing. Xinhua cited the case of the mayor of a northwestern capital city, who was exposed by a netizen after allegedly being seen at public events wearing expensive wrist watches, including one estimated to have cost $31,746, UPI said. In another case, a provincial urban management official was fired after online postings showed he owned 22 houses.
BEIJING - Wang Qishan, the Communist Party’s new anti-corruption chief, met leading experts on fighting corruption on Nov. 30 and told them the party’s survival depended on the outcome of their efforts, the Economist magazine reports. It was familiar rhetoric—anti-corruption campaigns are almost as old as the party—but the anti-corruption folk replied with their own message. Ma Huaide of the University of Political Science and Law in Beijing told Mr Wang that he should force officials to disclose their family assets publicly.
ISLAMABAD - Chairman of Pakistan’s Public Accounts Committee Nadeem Afzal Gondal on Thursday challenged the Transparency International report on corruption, saying the report was not prepared in good faith, according to The News. Nadeem Afzal said corruption was not rising in the country and condemned the report, saying it was compiled on the basis of wrong statistics. “The PAC, National Accountability Bureau and Supreme Court are working independently and recovering billions of rupees,” he said. He challenged the TI to hold a debate on corruption with the government.
KIGALI - Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi has called on all Rwandans to play a significant role in fighting corruption to build the country's sustainable development, according to a report on AllAfrica.com. The fight against corruption is one of the priorities of the government, the premier said. "We want to build our country, Rwanda, with no corruption and injustice," he told Gisagara residents while launching a week dedicated to the fight against corruption.
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