Both in investment and in commercial arbitration, it is becoming more and more frequent that a party raises the objection of corruption, money laundering, fraud or bid rigging.

The challenges this presents for arbitrators and parties are considerable and were the topic of a conference organised by the University of Basel in cooperation with the Basel Institute on Governance.

In March experts of the Basel Institute were among the winners of a competitive call for papers in the context of the 2018 OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum in Paris.

In a poster market setting and through a simultaneous TED-talk style research pitch, they interactively presented their paper on the topic of “Harnessing social networks for anti-corruption” at the event.

The Basel Institute has begun work on a mandate for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to provide support over a period of four years to the SDC DDLG thematic unit on a variety of good governance and related projects.

This work is conducted through a consortium led by the UK’s Institute for Development Studies (IDS) with the Basel Institute, XImpulse and the Hirondelle Foundation as participating members.

With a follow-on grant from the British Academy’s Anti-Corruption Evidence programme (ACE), funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Basel Institute will pursue a “phase two” research project stemming from the original and completed research study on "Informal Governance and Corruption: Transcending the Principal-Agent and Collective Action Paradigms".

This follow-on project will be led by Dr. Scott Newton of SOAS as Principal Investigator and Dr. Claudia Baez-Camargo of the Basel Institute as Co-Investigator.

Dr. Claudia Baez-Camargo, Head of Governance Research at the Basel Institute, presented her team’s findings from its two-year research project on Informal Governance and Corruption: Transcending the Principal-Agent and Collective Action Paradigms at the award holders’ event of the ACE programme at the British Academy in London on 27 February.

Staff of the Basel Institute will be at the following upcoming events (among others), either presenting or participating. See you there – or contact us in advance if you’d like to meet up.

Our Peru office, established in 2016, is working intensively with local authorities at central and subnational level to strengthen Public Financial Management and increase transparency and integrity in the public administration. Building capacity is an important part of this effort, with several recent highlights focused on improving training courses and resources for stakeholders.

An interview with Gemma Aiolfi, Head of Compliance, Corporate Governance and Collective Action at the Basel Institute, has been published by KMPG.

The interview – "From the top: effective anti-corruption measures and the need for change" – discusses the challenges facing banks in combating financial crime, including the need for senior management to lead by example.

The International Centre for Asset Recovery training team has been busy with a series of training workshops in financial investigation, asset recovery and related themes in Romania, Ukraine, Tanzania and Namibia.

We continue to offer our tailored advisory services to companies seeking to improve their anti-corruption compliance programmes.

Many companies with more mature programmes are showing interest in how to adapt elements of behavioural ethics to their compliance approach. Their aim is to go beyond traditional incentives to embed integrity in employees working in areas more exposed to compliance risks.