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.
E-government generally refers to the use of information and communication technologies to transform relations between citizens, businesses and various branches of government, and includes for example; e-procurement, e-customs, e-tax filing and e-sourcing.
In September 2017, the Basel Institute and the Rwandan Office of the Ombudsman concluded a joint two-year project to strengthen the involvement of non-state actors in the fight against corruption in Rwanda.
Researchers from the Basel Institute recently delivered a workshop on quantitative and qualitative research methodologies for corruption research at the Protestant University of Rwanda (PUR) in Butare, Rwanda.
The Basel Institute and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) will work together to provide expert support to the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in the framework of SDC's thematic network on democratisation, decentralisation and local government (DDLG). IDS is a leading global institution for development research, teaching and learning, and impact and communications, based at the University of Sussex.
Researchers at the Basel Institute have finalised their study on “Corruption, Social Norms and Behaviours in East Africa”. Funded by DFID’s East Africa Research Fund and headed by Dr Claudia Baez Camargo from the Basel Institute, this research project was launched in January 2016.
With a view to fostering co-operation across regional and international boarders to successfully handle asset recovery cases, the International Centre for Asset Recovery recently had the opportunity to conduct a regional training programmes in Botswana.
Sustainable capacity building at a national level is a key activity of the Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery. Train-the-Trainer (TTT) programmes play an important role in the process. Between January and September 2017, ICAR experts delivered a series of practical training workshops on Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery in Tanzania to nearly 100 investigators and prosecutors, four of which were also trained to become certified trainers.