The Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) celebrated the long-term sustainability of its 2016 Train-the-Trainer project in Uganda when three selected participants conducted their first Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery workshop during 5 – 9 March 2018. These participants received certification as trainers in the ICAR approach and methodology at the end of 2016, and successfully conducted this workshop, independent of the ICAR experts, for 25 of their colleagues.

In response to the challenges facing members of the judiciary, prosecutors and investigators in curbing procurement fraud and corruption in Uganda, training experts from the International Centre for Asset Recovery conducted a five-day specialised training module on investigations into corruption in infrastructure projects and procurement.

Practitioners and policy makers from Africa and Europe met last week in Berlin, Germany, to discuss ways to further accelerate the success rate in recovering stolen assets. The event was organised by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with support from the Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) and GIZ, and brought together representatives from Ethiopia, France, Germany, Jersey, Kenya, Norway, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and the United Kingdom. 

Informal practices are pervasive in all societies, and we are all in some form or other impacted by them, often without noticing at all but bearing the consequences nonetheless. Thus, they are hardly ever explicitly articulated or reflected in our governments’ policy making. The Basel Institute on Governance cordially invites you to a debate how informal practices shape the fabric of societies around the world and the impact they have on people’s life and more broadly on development outcomes. 

The Basel Institute on Governance is further strengthening its global reputation for independent and practice-oriented expertise in asset recovery. On March 29, Gretta Fenner, Managing Director the Basel Institute, signed an agreement of cooperation with Ecuador’s Attorney General. The objective of the collaboration is to assist and support the Attorney General’s Office in identifying, locating, seizing and repatriating illicit assets arising from acts of corruption or the laundering of assets to the detriment of the Ecuadorian State.

In 2017, the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) conducted a Train-the-Trainer project with the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) of Tanzania. At the conclusion of the programme, which was funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, four PCCB investigators and prosecutors were certified as trainers in “Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery”, using ICAR’s unique training methodology.

The decision that Jersey shall become a core donor to the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) for a three-year period has been signed by Jersey’s Treasury Minister on Friday 11 May 2018. With this decision, Jersey joins Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the United Kingdom in supporting the implementation of ICAR’s Operational Strategy which has been developed jointly with ICAR’s donors and partner countries.

The Basel Institute's International Centre for Collective Action completed its second of two workshops convening select Siemens Integrity Initiative Integrity Partners and other Collective Action Initiatives in Basel, Switzerland from 27 to 28 April 2018. The aim was to promote peer learning and to identify success factors and strategies for overcoming common challenges facing anti-corruption Collective Action Initiatives.

Those of us involved in corruption investigations and asset recovery know how important it is to gain fresh perspectives, contribute to international policy discussions, learn from others in the field and hopefully help them, too. In this spirit I am happy to share my experience from attending the 7th Session of the Conference of the States Parties (COSP) in Vienna in November 2017.

Procurement fraud and corruption are amongst the primary sources of corrupt income around the globe, and Tanzania is no exception in suffering from their disastrous effects. Following a recent report from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) of Tanzania that revealed that multiple projects handled by public institutions were tainted with corruption, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) was urged to initiate investigations into these projects.