The beginning of this year marked a growing interest in ICAR’s Train-the-Trainer programme in financial investigation and asset recovery with launches in Romania and Tanzania. The TTT programme comprises 4 to 5 successive training workshops, which are delivered over a period of several months. Potential local trainers are selected and trained to deliver similar workshops to their peers in the future, thus ensuring the sustainability of the project.

On 22 March 2017, the Basel Institute on Governance and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) have entered into an agreement whereby ICAR will assist NABU in strengthening their capacities to conduct complex investigations into cases of grand corruption, money laundering and related financial crimes. The support involves both assistance in on-going investigations as well as providing ICAR’s signature training.

The Basel Institute, one of the founding members of the Board of the World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), participated in this year’s Spring meeting of the World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (WEF PACI). The event focused on sharing views on how to rebuild trust and integrity in business and government. PACI’s work is driven by the active participation of its community including the PACI Vanguard Board. Key takeaways included:

Experts of the Basel Institute developed a specialised training on governance of state owned enterprises, anti-corruption prevention and Collective Action for a group of government officials from Uzbekistan. 

The programme, which was delivered at the Basel Institute's headquarters in May, was tailored to the requirements of the participants and was based on a combination of theory and best practices with case examples and practical exercises. The participation of a range of internal and external speakers ensured lively exchanges and discussion on specific issues.

The Basel Institute has been a longtime partner of the B20 anti-corruption working groups, and during the German Presidency has actively supported the Responsible Business Conduct and Anti-corruption work of the B20 by contributing to the development of the final recommendations. These were officially handed over to German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel in May. 

The Basel Institute on Governance and Rwanda’s Office of the Ombudsman convened an anti-corruption training workshop in Kigali, Rwanda on 29 and 30 June 2017. The first day provided bankers with an overview of international standards against money laundering and corruption for financial institutions, while the second day equipped journalists with practical skills in using open-source tools and databases for anti-corruption investigations. The workshop followed a participatory and practical approach with case studies and on-site exercises.    

In the context of the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Programme, and building on ICAR’s previous operational engagements in Bulgaria in support of the country’s efforts to tackle corruption, ICAR is partnering with the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria (PORB) to offer technical assistance and guidance in financial investigations and asset recovery. 

ICAR continues to work closely with a series of partner countries increasing their autonomy in the fight against financial crimes and money laundering as well as in recovering stolen public funds. ICAR’s current partner countries in the context of its capacity building services include Bulgaria, Romania, Tanzania and Uganda. 

In May 2017, Ugandan prosecutors secured convictions for money laundering in the Equity Bank trial, the first case of its kind in the country. Six of the accused in this trial, involving the embezzlement of $1,450 million from the bank, were convicted by the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo of embezzlement and money laundering, and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 5 to 12 years. The court ruled that Equity Bank was to receive $1,25 million as compensation, and vehicles, land and about $70 million as additional compensation. 

The International Centre for Collective Action (ICCA) extends its activities into teaching on an institutional level. As of January 2018, ICCA experts will provide teaching modules on initiating and managing Collective Action for professionals at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) in Laxenburg, Austria.