By Georg Florian Grabenweger, Policy Advisor at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA).

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have laboured hard for,” the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates once said. And still the picture of this hero of knowledge, wisdom, and sincerity reminds our students of their quest for excellence when they walk up the staircase to IACA’s grand auditorium.

By Virna Di Palma, Director of the TRACE Anti-Bribery Specialist Accreditation and Senior Director of Global Strategy and Communications at TRACE International, an anti-bribery business organisation.

By Frederic Wehrlé

Although there is no statutory obligation for companies to engage in anti-corruption Collective Action, there are references to it in guidance documents that have been issued by governments in relation to laws prohibiting bribery. These guidelines are used by companies when developing or reviewing their anti-corruption compliance programs, as well as when defining the scope of internal policies and procedures.

Comments from the Basel Institute on Governance Conference on Anti-Corruption Collective Action to address corporate and multi-stakeholder initiatives against bribery and extortion:

On 12 May 2014 the government of Ukraine took a step to help encourage much needed foreign investment into the country by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and several business associations, addressing bribery and promoting transparency and accountability.

In the context of the SUGAR project (“Strengthening Uganda’s Anti-Corruption and Accountability Response”) project, funded by the UK Department for International Development, experts from the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery conducted its first training workshop in early July 2016 as part of an extended train-the-trainer learning programme.

At the opening session of the recent High Level Conference on Illicit Financial Flows: Interagency Cooperation and Good Tax Governance in Africa (Pretoria, South Africa, 14 to 15 July 2016), the South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan highlighted that Africa continues to lose large sums of money annually as a result of illicit financial flows estimated at USD 50 billion every year; the application of complex ownership structures has become the most commonly used means of hiding ownership of assets.

The Basel Institute released its fifth edition of the Basel Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index today. The Index is an annual ranking assessing the money laundering/terrorism financing risks of 149 countries. 

The International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) has further expanded its operational engagement in South America partnering with Paraguay where ICAR experts, in partnership with the Ministerio Público (Public Prosecutor’s Office) of Paraguay, conducted a 5-day training programme in financial investigation and asset recovery in Asunción from 25 to 29 July 2016.