At the opening ceremony of the second Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery training workshop in Uganda during August 2016, the Inspector General of Government, Lady Justice Irene Mulyagonja, emphasised the importance of hitting those convicted of corruption where it hurts most: in addition to imprisonment, illicit assets had to be confiscated as this was essential for the anti-corruption fight to be meaningful.

Experts from Basel Institute participated during a roundtable organised in Sofia, Bulgaria on 14 July 2016 by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), a Bulgarian interdisciplinary public policy institute, on the topic: “Scope and implications of money laundering activities: institutional governance in the fight against money laundering in Bulgaria”. Basel Institute is a partner organisation with CSD under the Bulgarian Thematic Fund Security Project “Overcoming institutional capacity gaps to counter corruption and organised crime in Bulgaria”.

Today, Europol, INTERPOL, and the Basel Institute on Governance have formalised the establishment of a tripartite partnership for a working group on money laundering with digital currencies. The working group will aim to:

The FATF published today its assessment of Austria’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing of terrorism (CFT) regime in which Austria was found to have a solid AML framework but to fall short in its effective implementation.

Analysing suspicious financial activities is a key function of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs). To enhance the capacity of FIUs worldwide, the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) in cooperation with the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units has developed an e-learning course on “Operational Analysis”. The new course is now available online.

Singapore demonstrates a strong anti-money laundering (AML) legislative framework but shows significant weaknesses in its effective implementation, according to a recent review by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The Basel Institute on Governance provides a comparative analysis illustrating how Singapore fares/compares against other countries evaluated by the FATF on the basis of its new assessment methodology. 

The Collective Action Initiative for the Metals Technology Industry (MTI) brings together the three leading companies in the metals technology industry Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche SpA, Primetals Technologies Limited and SMS GmbH.

The International Centre for Collective Action (ICCA) at the Basel Institute has accompanied the MTI since its inception in 2013, and has been working with the group to improve and develop their anti-corruption programs. The ICCA acts as the chair and facilitator to the MTI group and supports this important step.

The Global Fund is an international financing institution that seeks to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. The Geneva-based organisation has selected the Basel Institute on Governance to serve as Integrity Monitor for the procurement of long-lasting insecticide nets (LLINs) financed by the Global Fund.

The Basel Institute on Governance and its International Centre for Collective Action (ICCA) will host for the second time an international conference on anti-corruption Collective Action entitled Evidence, Experience and Impact on October 20-21 2016 in Basel. The conference is part of the G20/B20 anti-corruption agenda aimed at identifying mechanisms that may effectively prevent bribery of public officials and support companies’ efforts to resist bribery and extortion.

Today (October 31, 2016) the Nairobi based daily newspaper The Star, published an article written by Gretta Fenner, the Institute’s director, on recent and, in her view, positive developments in the fight against corruption in Kenya. The article explains how a change in tack led by management of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), and a new and vigorous focus on following the stolen cash rather than probing procedural irregularities are starting to have an impact.