Within the context of the recently launched three-year initiative on "Mapping and Visualising Cross-Border Crime” funded by the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Program, experts from the International Centre for Asset recovery (ICAR) conducted its first training workshop in Bucharest during 21-23 April 2015.

On April 20-22 the Basel Institute on Governance offered a workshop on Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods on Corruption. The workshop was held at the University of Basel and brought together a group of 12 academics and practitioners from around the world. Nationalities represented were Nigerian, Brazilian, American, Romanian, Greek, Japanese, French, German and Swiss.  

In the context of the Basel Institute's partnership arrangement with the Inter-Agency Network of South Africa (ARINSA), the Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), together with ARINSA and the Government of Botswana conducted a  joint anti-money laundering (AML) workshop for prosecutors and investigators from 12-15 April 2015 in Gaborone, Botswana.

TRACE named the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN), a global business network of companies and associations involved in the maritime industry, the winner of its second annual Innovation in Anti-Bribery Compliance Award. The MACN was recognized for its efforts to create an industry-wide compliance culture through collective action.

The Basel Institute’s contribution to the EU-funded ANTICORRP research consortium through the Work Package “The ethnographic study of corruption” (WP4) has come to a close with the acceptance by the European Commission of the second set of publications emanating from this research effort.

In the context of the International Centre for Asset Recovery’s (ICAR) ongoing partnership with the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network of South Africa (ARINSA) and the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to strengthen the capacities of partner countries to conduct investigations, trace and recover stolen assets emanating from money laundering and similar offences, ICAR, together with ARINSA and the Government of Swaziland conducted a further joint workshop for prosecutors and investigators on proceeds of crime and money laundering.

After conducting two very successful and similar workshops in financial investigation and asset recovery in Bhutan during 2014, the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) was invited to conduct a third such training workshop in Bhutan.

From 23 to 27 February 2015, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network of South Africa (ARINSA), the Government of Uganda and the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) carried out a joint workshop for prosecutors, investigators and other relevant stakeholders on the recovery of proceeds of crime from wildlife and forest offences and money laundering in Entebbe, Uganda.

The Basel Institute on Governance is organising a panel in the upcoming 5th World Sustainability Forum. Panel title: The elusive search for sustainable anti-corruption strategies: what have we overlooked?

The Government of Panama will evaluate the implementation of a High Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM), through a pilot project in collaboration with the Basel Institute on Governance and the British Embassy in Panama.

Mark Pieth and Gemma Aiolfi of the Basel Institute met with Vice President Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado and several government ministers on Wednesday, 11 February 2015, to discuss the HLRM and its corruption prevention capacities, overall function and potential application within the Panamanian context.