The Basel Institute has a long-standing working relationship with the government of Bhutan covering a range of joint endeavours on developing anti-corruption policies and asset recovery. For a new project, commissioned by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), researchers from the Basel Institute worked with Bhutanese authorities to introduce social accountability concepts to support efforts to encourage citizen participation in democratic practices at the local government level.

In September 2016, ICAR kicked off a new 3.5 year program of work in support of Malawi's key law enforcement agencies and their efforts to tackle serious corruption and related financial crimes. Financed with a grant from the UK Department for International Development, the program is a continuation and expansion of the already on-going work of ICAR - also funded by DFID - in Malawi, in the course of which two embedded experts were supporting Malawi authorities in the investigation and prosecution of the so-called Cashgate scandals. The latter continues to be a priority.

Analysing suspicious financial activities is a key function of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs). To enhance the capacity of FIUs worldwide, ICAR in cooperation with the Egmont Group of FIUs has developed a unique e-learning course on “Operational Analysis”.

ICAR’s training team chose Peru to present for the first time its new specialised training course on “Advanced On-Site Training Operational Analysis”. For the delivery of this training in Peru in early June, additional country-specific elements were added. The goal of this specialized training was to strengthen the FIU's analytical and operational capacities in financial investigation.

Recently, researchers from the Basel Institute, University College London (UCL), SOAS London and other international institutions met in Basel to take stock of progress made and discuss next steps in their new anti-corruption research project on “Informal Governance and Corruption”. Emerging evidence from the fieldwork, carried out in East Africa, Central Asia and the Caucasus, suggests that informal practices are not only essential for regime survival but also associated with the prevalence of high levels of corruption. 

A fundamental priority for law enforcement authorities dealing with financial crime is to recover illegally obtained assets and deny criminals access to the proceeds of their crime. The recovery of illegally obtained assets, however, requires first to successfully trace them.

Throughout 2016, ICAR experts have played a significant role in enhancing Uganda’s capacity to fight money laundering and terrorism financing. Part of this support, provided in the context of the Basel Institute’s involvement in the “Strengthening Uganda’s Anti-Corruption and Accountability Regime” (SUGAR) programme managed by Adam Smith International (ASI), involved assisting the country during the process of identifying and assessing its risk exposure to money laundering and terrorism financing.

To strengthen the capacity of East African anti-corruption agencies to investigate and prosecute international corruption and money laundering, and to enhance regional cooperation in this regard, ICAR led a regional training workshop on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery.

The Basel Institute on Governance and its International Centre for Collective Action (ICCA) hosted an international conference on anti-corruption Collective Action with almost 200 participants from the private sector, government, international organisations and civil society. The conference took place on October 20-21, 2016 in Basel and was part of the B20 efforts to promote Collective Action in anti-corruption. 

The Basel Institute on Governance supported the London based events organiser C5 in the organisation of an anti-corruption conference in Switzerland. The event attracted compliance and ethics professionals from various backgrounds and took place in Zurich from 28 February to 1 March.