Round-up of news reports on corruption from the world's media
DELHI - A panel reviewing India's laws on sex crimes after the fatal gang rape of a student has highlighted the problem of criminalisation of politics and asked lawmakers facing severe charges to quit voluntarily as a mark of respect to the parliament and the constitution, the BBC’s Delhi correspondent reports in a blog post. Last year, India's most respected election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms informed Indians that nearly a third of MPs - 158 of 543 - in the parliament faced criminal charges, the blogger said. The watchdog also found that 98 candidates facing corruption cases were given tickets by various political parties during general and state elections in the last five years, he added.
HONG KONG - The prosecution’s bribery case against Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd’s billionaire co-chairmen Thomas and Raymond Kwok and Hong Kong’s former No. 2 official Rafael Hui will be ready by March, a court was told, according to Bloomberg. Evidence and witness statements will be available to their lawyers by Feb. 28, prosecutor David Perry was reported to have said.
SHANGHAI - The Shanghai city prosecutor's office plans to start keeping records of companies that commit bribery to prevent them from doing business with government departments, the Shanghai People's Prosecutors Office said on Thursday, Global Times reports. The prosecutor's office ordered local government departments in March 2012 to begin checking the bribery records of their commercial partners before procuring goods or putting construction projects up for bid, the newspaper said, citing a press release from the prosecutor's office.
SYDNEY - Australia’s corruption body is borrowing staff and equipment from the agencies it oversees to run investigations, with the number of customs officers being investigated exceeding its entire workforce, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. The Labour MP Melissa Parke and the former Commonwealth ombudsman Allan Asher are concerned about resourcing for the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and have called for the federal government to consider a broad-based national anti-corruption body, the newspaper said.
ONTARIO - Canadian engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has hired Watergate investigator Michael Hershman to advise the company on anti-corruption issues as it takes steps to strengthen its business practices amid ongoing police investigations, Canada’s Financial Post newspaper reports. The naming of Hershman is likely to reassure investors that SNC is taking the right steps to weed out any corruption that may currently exist, or have existed, within the company, the newspaper said. However, hiring such a high-profile international expert in the field could also signal just how deep SNC’s board believes its internal ethics problems run, the Financial Post added.
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