The Basel Institute was shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Rafael Merchan, the former Secretary of Transparency of Colombia, at his home over the Christmas holiday.
The Basel Institute on Governance has been instrumental to the design, development and implementation of industry standards through collective action across the world and in a large variety of sectors. Examples of this experience are the PACI Principles, the Wolfsberg Anti Money Laundering Principles, the Clovis Principles and our ongoing efforts in the Power Systems, Logistics & Transport and Art Trade sectors.
In October 2011, FIFA had announced that it had commissioned four internal Task Forces to conduct a thorough reform process. Concurrently, it indicated that an external advisory board, the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) would oversee its governance reform and make final recommendations to FIFA`s Executive Committee (ExCo).
After the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announced its decision to reform the organisation and to commit to greater transparency earlier this year, it asked Prof. Dr. Mark Pieth to advise on the reorganisation of its governance.
In this role, Prof. Pieth examined the organisational structures and procedures and their abilities to deal with existing risks and challenges.
On Monday 26th November 2013, representatives from the World Economic Forum's Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), the OECD, the Basel Institute on Governance, and Siemens discussed the need for businesses to use Collective Action in the fight against corruption.
This was addressed on the occasion of the Fifth Conference of the State Parties (CoSP) to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, held in Panama City, Panama.
After two years as the external supporting and supervisory body of FIFA’s governance reform, the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) chaired by Prof. Mark Pieth will step down from its position by the end of 2013. The IGC was set up as a temporary body with the goal of overseeing the creation of a framework of good governance and controls for FIFA.
The B20 Task Force on Anti-Corruption and Transparency has awarded the establishment of the B20 Collective Action Hub to the Basel Institute on Governance, which will work on this in close partnership with the UN Global Compact. This comes at the same time as leading global companies from the energy and transport sector have agreed to establish a Working Group on Integrity to collaborate with the Basel Institute on anti-corruption Collective Action initiatives in those sectors.
A high-level conference in Bogota, Colombia, on 2 April saw the launch by the President of the Republic of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, of the world's first 'High Level Reporting Mechanism' (HLRM).
Professor Mark Pieth, Chairman of the Independent Governance Committee of FIFA, gave this address at the 62nd FIFA Congress 2012.
Download the presentation (PDF).
Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) and its members I would like to thank you for this opportunity to present our findings. Allow me first, though, to congratulate you to the decision to engage in this major reform process.
The Chairman of the Independent Governance Committee (IGC) welcomes the Recommendations by the European Parliamentary Assembly on the reform of Sports Governing Bodies. The IGC considers the Recommendations a helpful support of the ongoing governance reform of FIFA.