Public procurement is one of the highest risk areas for corruption. A public project contaminated with corruption is a recipe for disaster: ordinary citizens suffer from substandard facilities and services; competitive companies lose out when the bidding is rigged; and government money vanishes without making a difference. To rein in procurement corruption in, improving transparency and civic monitoring is vital.

Corruption in government procurement is a massive problem worldwide, especially in developing countries. In an ideal world, measures to combat procurement corruption would include structural changes that would open up monopolies, break cartels, and enact rational, uniform, and effective procurement laws. Sadly, the potential effectiveness of these measures is matched only by the near impossibility of their implementation any time soon. We should continue to push for comprehensive structural solutions to the procurement mess, of course.

Quality infrastructure supports sustainable growth, improves well-being and generates jobs. Recognising this, quality infrastructure is both an explicit goal and enabler of the 2030 sustainable development agenda.

Mark Pieth, Founder of the Basel Institute on Governance and author of the book Gold Laundering, offers an insight into the risks of human rights and environmental harms in gold supply chains. Where are the risks and responsibilities?

Collective Action with gold refiners, suppliers and other stakeholders, he concludes, can help to clean up the industry.

The member countries of the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific attach high priority to the fight against corruption in public procurement. In July 2004, member countries of the Initiative decided to dedicate the Initiative’s first thematic review to curbing corruption in public procurement.

Financial investigations are critical to proving crimes such as corruption, fraud and trafficking in humans or illicit goods. They are also central to confiscating illegally obtained assets from criminals – so that crime doesn’t pay. 

Yet there is often confusion about who performs financial investigations, how, when and why, as well as their relationship to criminal investigations. All of these questions are further complicated by the fact that different countries have different legal systems, different laws and different terminology. 

This quick guide by Phyllis Atkinson looks at how criminals manipulate and misuse corporate vehicles in offshore jurisdictions to launder money. It focuses on the meaning of "corporate vehicle" and "offshore" and other related concepts such as beneficial ownership. It also gives an example of how a trust, which is one common type of corporate vehicle in the vast "offshore ecosystem", can be used for illicit purposes. 

“Follow the money!” Everyone’s talking about it, especially in relation to corruption, fraud and organised crime.

What does “following money” actually mean in this context? How do we do it in practice? And what are some of the wider possibilities?

Read this quick guide by Stephen Ratcliffe, Senior Investigation Specialist, to find out.

Recovering criminals’ ill-gotten assets, i.e. confiscating property, cars, yachts, cash and other funds gained through corruption or other acquisitive crimes, is a big topic in law enforcement. Among other benefits, asset recovery acts as a deterrent against crime and makes a clear public statement that illicit wealth will be targeted and returned to the public treasury.

In this quick guide, Phill Jones, former Senior Investigation / Asset Recovery Specialist, sets out some fundamental investigative skills that will help investigators trace even the most cleverly hidden assets.

Every day, an unknown number of elephant tusks, rhino horn, pangolin scales and other wildlife products – alive and dead – cross the oceans in container ships and cargo flights for use in traditional medicine, crafts and the illegal pet trade. Rare trees are felled in ancient forests and shipped out under false certificates.

They leave behind the butchered carcasses of the last remaining animals of many species, scarred and emptied landscapes, legal livelihoods undermined by corruption and criminal activity, and communities ravaged by organised crime networks.