Entries by Corruption Watch

How corruption is fraying SA’s social, economic fabric

26 July 2017 in , /by

If South Africa is to recover, then the country’s badly frayed socio-economic fabric will need to be restitched, not just patched, writes Sean Gossel. Reversing the effects of state decay on the poor will take short-run and long-run interventions. Short-run measures will need to include holding public officials to account, reforming state owned enterprises and reversing the numerous institutional weaknesses at all levels of government, while long-term interventions must involve both public and private stakeholders.

Global anti-money laundering in four charts

19 July 2017 in , , /by

As of April 2017, the level of country compliance with the FATF 40 recommendations rests at just 25% across the 30 countries most recently assessed. While this is definitely an improvement since 2011, when full compliance across 160 countries was at 12.3%, taking 27 years since the standards were introduced to get to a 25% compliance level cannot exactly be called rapid progress.

New international centre to combat grand corruption

17 July 2017 in , /by

International agencies have joined forces to tackle grand corruption across borders. Earlier in July the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre opened its doors, with the aim of clamping down on a crime category that can include bribery of public officials, embezzlement, abuse of power and money laundering of illegal proceeds.

CITES welcomes G20 intent to combat wildlife corruption

14 July 2017 in , /by

In the wake of the recent G20 conference in Hamburg, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) noted that G20 leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to address illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products, particularly through combating corruption. South Africa is a member of the G20 and a party to CITES.

Time for govts to accept that civil society is not the enemy

13 July 2017 in , /by

G20 governments must lead the way in ceasing to treat civil society as the enemy, writes Cathal Gilbert in this op-ed just before the recent G20 meeting. Rather, civil society plays a critical role in securing public buy-in for government policies and helps to ensure that the right programmes get implemented at the local level, and it’s time that governments accept and embrace this.

Public parly participation: survey reveals good and bad

10 July 2017 in , , , /by

The Parliamentary Monitoring Group has published a new survey on public participation in Parliament’s consultative processes. The survey revealed that participants are neither entirely satisfied nor dissatisfied with the process as it is, and they feel that Parliament has to work harder to ensure that it garners a plurality and multiplicity of views.

Top cops must be appointed transparently and on merit

5 July 2017 in , , , /by

On 5 July Corruption Watch and the Institute for Security Studies launched a joint public awareness campaign for transparency and merit-based selection in the upcoming appointments of the South African Police Service national commissioner and the head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, or Hawks. It is crucial that the current serial crisis of top management in the police is addressed, as this has been identified as the root cause of most of the problems facing the police in South Africa.