A daily scrapbook of stories from major news media on corruption, bribery and financial crimes
Money trail: Tuesday 16 April
MUMBAI - Mumbai's authorities have been heavily criticised for failing to regulate or tackle illegal construction effectively, after a building collapse that left 74 dead, the BBC reports. The chief minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, suggested building regulations had to be redefined and told the BBC the system of applying for planning permission had to be clearer in order to stamp out corruption.
KHARTOUM - Sudanese Justice Minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa has announced he has got the green light from the chief justice to establish new courts to deal with money embezzled in the public sector at the state and federal level, the Sudan Tribune reports. Dousa also said he had appealed to President Omar al-Bashir to approve posting legal attachés in Cairo, Riyadh, Addis Ababa, Geneva and New York to provide legal services in international law, the newspaper said.
HONG KONG - State-run China Central Television (CCTV) has exposed widespread secret wining and dining by government officials, prompting calls for greater transparency on sangong expenditure – government officials' spending on overseas visits, the purchase and maintenance of government vehicles, and receptions and meetings, the South China Morning Post reports. CCTV found government officials were frequenting private clubs hidden deep under public parks and concealed by old temples to indulge in expensive meals, despite President Xi Jinping’s drive to curb extravagance and tackle corruption, the newspaper said.
BEIJING – The Global Post reports that Xi’s campaign may already have hit sales of luxuries, and quotes observers as saying this drop, not weak industrial output, may be behind China’s smaller than expected first-quarter economic growth. Measures to curb party leaders’ lavish spending have hit many restaurants, luxury retailers and liquor sellers in Chinese cities. and sales at large restaurants have tumbled for the first time in over 30 years.
CAIRO — Egypt’s deposed president Hosni Mubarak will remain in custody on new corruption charges, despite a court order to release him before his retrial over the killing of protesters in the uprising against him, Egypt’s state news agency said on Monday. The order by the Cairo Criminal Court said Mubarak could be released on bail if he was not wanted for any other court cases, the Washington Post reports.
LAHORE - A Pakistani umpire suspended for four years on corruption charges plans to appeal against the ban, Pakistan Today reports. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) banned Nadeem Ghauri on Saturday for agreeing to “extend undue favours for material gain” during a sting operation by an Indian television station last year. “It's a one-sided decision and I am not happy with this decision,” Ghauri said. “They didn't give me a chance, and I think that the PCB did it (under) some pressure. I came to know about the decision through the media.”
LUSAKA - Zambia's embattled ex-president has been re-arrested and hit with fresh graft charges, the Mail and Guardian reports. "The former president, Rupiah Banda, has today been formally charged and arrested in connection with nine light trucks, which he received from a construction company that was constructing a stadium," Namukolo Kasumpa, a spokesman for the Government Joint Investigations Team, told the paper on Monday. Banda, 76, who ruled Zambia from 2008 to 2011, was stripped of his presidential immunity last month and faces a string of corruption-related charges. The paper quoted Kasumpa as saying the trucks were used for campaigning in an election Banda lost to Michael Sata in 2011.
SYDNEY - The Seychelles have granted a year's asylum to the son-in-law of Tunisia's deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, officials say, according to the Australian Associated Press (AAP). Sakhr El Materi, who was convicted in absentia of corruption by a Tunisian court, appealed for asylum in the Indian Ocean archipelago in February, the news agency said.
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