Reporter’s Notebook Colombia: Corruption’s Family Ties

Commercials showed humble peasant families as the people who’d benefit from a new government subsidy program intended for farmers. Soon after, though, entire families of campaign donors were receiving millionaire subsidies. Beauty queens and extradited criminals tagged along as well.

In the 2009 Reporter’s Notebook: Colombia, award-winning reporter Ignacio Gómez tells a story about how in his country close friendships and family ties matter more than anything when it comes to money and power. The closer the link is to the President, the better.

The story is part of the Corruption Notebooks, a collection of stories by leading investigative journalists from around the world on what happens when the public is either uninformed about abuses of power or incapable of doing anything about it. The Corruption Notebooks are part of the Global Integrity Report 2009.

-- Hazel Feigenblatt

-- Image: Botgata by NapaneeGal/Flickr (cc by/nc)

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Reporter’s Notebook Nepal: When “pocketless” pants can make a difference

In Nepal, tourists don’t need to leave the airport to start experiencing the “adventures” of visiting one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

True to the country’s bad reputation, corruption makes a quick appearance as soon as passengers arrive and are victims of everything from bribes to plain theft, by staff of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, airlines, customs, immigration and even security personnel.

Mandatory “pocketless” pants for airport employees were recently proposed as possible deterrents to corruption but, as it usually happens in the country, the measure failed to be implemented.

In the 2009 Reporter’s Notebook: Nepal, local journalist Surendra Phuyal takes us out of the relatively controlled airport environment and into the country’s daily life marked by corruption.

The story is part of the Corruption Notebooks, a collection of stories by leading investigative journalists from around the world on what happens when the public is either uninformed about abuses of power or incapable of doing anything about it. The Corruption Notebooks are part of the Global Integrity Report 2009.

-- Hazel Feigenblatt

-- Image: Patan, Kathmandu by nubui/Flickr (cc by/nc/sa)

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Reporter’s Notebook Ukraine: Corrupt Judges and Stray Dogs

It is a really bad sign when police find more than US$1 million in cash in the office of the Administrative Appellate Court head, particularly if his explanation is that he was going to give the money to a church and didn’t have “time” to do it.

But for lawyers and prosecutors in Ukraine, the time to think about the meaning of signs is over. Most of them are nowadays convinced that their country has as many corrupt judges as stray dogs, as one of them bluntly puts it in the 2009 Reporter’s Notebook: Ukraine.

In the report, local author Vlad Lavrov shows what it is like to work in a legal system where so many judges should leave the bench and take the defendant’s seat.

The story is part of the Corruption Notebooks, a collection of stories by leading investigative journalists from around the world on what happens when the public is either uninformed about abuses of power or incapable of doing anything about it.

-- Hazel Feigenblatt

-- Image: Ukrainian street dogs by vtornick/Flickr (cc by/nc/sa)

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Lack of Political Will Hinders Access to Information Regimes in Africa

The Carter Center held a Freedom of Information (FOIA) summit in Africa last month to discuss the continent’s continuing struggles with citizen access to information. What was agreed upon? Tracking with findings from previous Global Integrity Reports, participants noted a need to go beyond broad rights to information (as guaranteed in the constitutions of many African nations) and towards institutionalizing citizen access regimes. In other words, the time has come to implement these rights through institutional mechanisms that guarantee citizen access to government information on a daily basis.

For three days in February, over 100 participants from governments, media outlets, NGOs, and the private sector, representing twenty African countries, gathered in Accra, Ghana for the African Regional Conference on the Right of Access to Information sponsored by the Carter Center. The goal: to gather ideas on how to advance the right of access to information on a continent that has severely lagged behind the rest of the world in passing legislation and providing safeguards for access to information.

Implementation Stunted Without Political Will

Conference participants agreed that in Africa, political and institutional constraints have limited opportunities to exercise the right of access to information. These findings mirrored those of the Global Integrity Report: 2009. For example, in Ghana and Sierra Leone, we found that laws guaranteeing a citizen’s right to access government information and basic records are absent. In Ghana, a lack of political will has impeded the passing of access to information legislation -- a Right to Information Bill has been pending since 2002 and has yet to be presented to Parliament. Our researcher in Ghana reported that although it is possible for citizens to obtain government information, such access is often dependent on bribes and personal dealings with public officials in charge of the information.

The Carter Center’s conference also concluded that even when FOIA-type laws exist, insufficient political will and weak legal and administrative guidelines have handicapped the actual implementation of these laws. Similarly, our researchers found that in many African countries with access to information laws on the books such as Liberia, Malawi, and Kenya, there are no institutional mechanisms in place to handle appeals if a citizen is denied access to government records. Laws in Liberia and Malawi are largely ineffective; obtaining government information and records can take months.

Utility of Information: A Case Study in Uganda

While access to information can undoubtedly help citizens demand enforcement of their rights and increase efficiency of service delivery (think public expenditure tracking surveys), in most countries, it is journalists who make the most use of open government provisions. Investigative reporting has the potential to spark public outrage and reform. Governments know this and (as was discussed at the Carter Center conference) this is one reason they may be less than enthusiastic about sharing information with the public.

In Uganda, a country that boasts one of the higher scores in public access to information indicators in Africa on the Global Integrity Report, the government refused to release information on profit-sharing agreements it signed with two oil companies, even to Parliament. This past December, two Ugandan journalists and a separate NGO sued to force the government to publicly reveal details and copies of the profit-sharing agreements. The power of journalists in Malawi to expose corruption in government is limited without an access to information law in place. Our reporter in the country noted, “Without this piece of legislation, journalists have to circumvent red tape to access vital information, a situation that tends to limit their accuracy and put them at risk for lawsuits.”

The African Regional Conference on the Right of Access to Information culminated in a regional plan of action that includes recommended actions for regional and international bodies, states, and non-state actors to advance the right to access to information. Participants agreed it is not enough to have laws guaranteeing access to information; governments and citizens must take responsibility to ensure information and records are provided effectively.

-- Emilie Yam

--Image: Xevi V / Flickr (cc by/nc/sa)

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Clarification on Global Integrity's Trinidad & Tobago Reporting

Global Integrity Report: 2009 clarification: It has come to our attention that a press release was issued locally in Trinidad & Tobago suggesting that the country had been added to Global Integrity's Grand Corruption Watchlist. This is not the case. Readers with questions about our reporting in the country should feel free to send an email to info@globalintegrity.org.

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The Global Integrity Mashup Challenge

Global Integrity is giving away $1000 in cash prizes to bloggers, designers and analysts who use our data. What do Global Integrity data say about an issue, country or region you care about? What is the story buried in that raw data?

The Global Integrity Mashup Challenge is a search for original analysis of Global Integrity’s data on governance and corruption trends that use our work to shed new insights on issues and regions of interest to the public. There are thousands of stories embedded within Global Integrity's data. Dig in and mash up our data with your knowledge to create new analysis of an issue you care about. We're looking for any content that can be used on the Web: Blog posts, academic analysis, infographics, video, audio.

To apply, read the wiki guidelines, publish your analysis online and send us a link via this form: http://bit.ly/macha10

If you don't have a blog, we can host your content for you. Apply by April 16, 2010 to be eligible for our $750 and $250 cash prizes. All entries will receive an "I Heart Integrity" laptop sticker.

Why a public challenge?

Global Integrity is a worldwide network of local reporters and researchers that collaborate online (learn more here). We have scaled up quickly by keeping our overhead very lean -- each year we engage roughly 100 field staff for every office staff. As a result we are very good at creating and publishing original content, but less good at analysis. We sometimes miss important stories buried in our data simply for lack of capacity. This contest is your chance to fight corruption by doing original analysis of this giant pile of raw information. And we have a sneaky suspicion that your analysis has the potential to simultaneously inform your own work-- whatever the focus may be.

Ready to Mashup?

Visit the Mashup Challenge wiki for more detailed information on how to start, what types of entries we're looking for and how we will be judging the entries (http://commons.wikispaces.com/Mashup+Challenge+2010).

As always, we'd love your help promoting the Global Integrity Mashup Challenge. Please visit our press room for more details. You are welcome to repost this text in any format.

Questions? visit the Mashup Challenge wiki for more details and don't hesitate to contact Norah Mallaney at info@globalintegrity.org

-- Norah Mallaney & Global Integrity

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Post and Telecommunications of Kosovo (PTK) Reponds to Global Integrity Report

Post and Telecommunications of Kosovo (PTK) asked us for a chance to respond publicly to our new Reporter's Notebook for Kosovo that appears as part of the Global Integrity Report: 2009. That Notebook recaps an already-reported controversy surrounding PTK, and we were happy to oblige PTK with an opportunity to express its views on the matter.

You can read the full letter from PTK here. Additional local press coverage of the issue is also here, here, here, and here (courtesy of PTK).

-- Nathaniel Heller

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Responses to Global Integrity's Op-Ed on Tongan Procurement

In Tonga, the Royal Commission of Inquiry is wrapping up its investigation into the tragic ferry accident of last August that killed 74 people. Global Integrity weighed in on the debate, using our locally reported data as the basis for a letter to the editor of the Matangi Tonga newspaper. The responses have been mixed and a few feathers may have been ruffled (in a good way, we would argue).

We have been following the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s progress over the past few months, and our disappointment over the emerging emphasis on individual actors rather than institutional weaknesses prompted us to say something. Below is the letter, as printed in the Matangi Tonga online:

Government
Major weaknesses in Tonga's procurement system
03 Mar 2010, 11:10
Washington DC, USA:

Editor,

TONGANS will always remember the day the Princess Ashika sunk in the Pacific waters. Just days after the tragedy, I flew over that same ocean on my first trip to Tonga to participate in a discussion of Tonga's corruption and transparency challenges based on recent fieldwork my organization, Global Integrity, had conducted with a team of Tongan researchers and journalists. After hearing the news, my colleague Nathaniel Heller and I were unsure of what we would find when we landed in Nukua'lofa. While so many Tongans we spoke with were obviously grief-stricken, we were most impressed by a sense of perseverance that the people of Tonga embodied. Nathaniel and I left Tonga just as the Royal Commission of Inquiry commenced and have followed the investigation out of both personal and professional interest.

However, as the inquiry has progressed, we were surprised to read the Prime Minister's statement that individuals' decisions, and not institutional government weakness, were to blame for the tragic accident.

The research our Tongan partners compiled in advance of our August 2009 workshop (data that reflects the time period of the Ashika's purchase) clearly point to major weaknesses in Tonga's procurement system that have nothing to do with individuals making poor decisions and everything to do with weak rules of the game. Large-scale procurements are signed with little public or internal oversight, which has been consistently reinforced by the Commission's findings. While procurement committee decisions are overseen by Parliament, the government has rarely made an effort to publicize the results of major government purchases meaning that those outside of government have little opportunity to monitor government procurements.

The Princess Ashika vessel was purchased in spite of serious structural damage, but because the government was not required to share detailed information on procurement decisions with the public, Tongans learned of these structural issues far too late. While the Prime Minister and the Commission of Inquiry may argue that certain individuals within the Ministry of Transport should have done a better job of performing due diligence, the truth is that oversight was remiss due to a lack of clear reporting requirements for procurement decisions both within government and to the public.

While the choices and actions of individual procurement officials undoubtedly played a role in the purchase of a boat unfit for the seas, this tragedy cannot be blamed solely on poor decision-making of a few individuals. The porous legal and regulatory framework is the real culprit. Until Tonga's procurement systems are reformed to establish a clear reporting structure and to require the public announcement of decisions, it is only a matter of time until the next tragedy occurs.

Norah Mallaney,
Global Integrity

And the Response...

One Tongan ex-pat called Global Integrity’s DC office to simply chat about the Commission’s interviews and the potential for reform in his country. He views the media as essential to pushing for progress. He believes that management systems should be in place not with the intention to constrain individuals but to allow for integrity to come through.

Here's one email we received:

“Hi Norah

I am 100% believe in your argument. The reporting system caused the disaster. Never been the individual. Asking the Prime Minister if he saw the report on due diligence he said no he trust the oral report from the Minister of Transport, asking the Finance Minister he said he trust the oral report from the Minister of Transport. Asking the Minister of transport if they have done any survey of the boat he said he rely on the report from the shipping cooperation. See how stupid of them keep relying on others without ever asking for a written report.
Stupid system!! Stupid people playing at the expense of the poor people.

Thank you Nora you are definitely right.

Regards
S”

We received another email enumerating many examples of procurement and privatization decisions that the King or other top officials have made favoring close friends or relatives. We won’t repeat the claims here, but this individual states that the emphasis on cronyism in awarding government jobs and contracts has led to agencies staffed by officials who do not have proper skills to effectively provide oversight.

As we highlighted in our letter, the lack of publicly available information makes it impossible for Tongans to track the tender and purchase decisions of their government. This individual seems skeptical that opening such records would change much:

“You made the comment …” Large-scale procurements are signed with little public or internal oversight, which has been consistently reinforced by the Commission's findings. While procurement committee decisions are overseen by Parliament, the government has rarely made an effort to publicize the results of major government purchases meaning that those outside of government have little opportunity to monitor government procurements.

You are exactly right. There is no transparency and no accountability. Even if the government became more transparent, I doubt if anything would change since there is no one to challenge them. That is and I am soon to be proven correct, that even with transparency, its up to the government to take it one more step and make itself accountable for its errors.

Hence the Royal Commission’s Terms of Reference (TOR) in the Ashika has no capability to implement criminal action or charges. It’s like a toothless tiger. The king and government would not want to incriminate itself now would it?

Best Regards”

Of course, we are not adored by all. Here’s one follow-up letter to the editor of Matangi Tonga:

Savai'i, Samoa

Editor,

The Royal Commission is in the process of finalising its report and everyone has their own theory as to what happened, didn't happen, was supposed to happen... One would expect from all the errors, deficiencies and shortfalls identified; that causal factors will be determined, as well as contributory factors, and from that the required corrective & preventative actions recommended for implementation.

Foreign based organisations such as Global Integrity who only spend 5 minutes in Tonga, and then think they know the answer to all the ills, issues and problems in Tonga should refrain from sensationalism and making unqualified and unsubstantiated claims.

If you claim to promote "Integrity" then you should not pre-empt the 'due process'. As we say here in Samoa "Fai fai lemu" - which means "slow down & have patience".

Siu 'Ulua

We look forward to the Royal Commission of Inquiry’s full report, which is due to be released later this month.

-- Norah Mallaney

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Tracking Impact: Voies Nouvelles Brings Government and NGOs Together to Talk Education

Voies Nouvelles, the Cameroon-based budget monitoring organization and a winner of the Global Integrity Impact Challenge in 2009, continues to push government reform, maintaining an interested public audience for their organizational activities.

When Voies Nouvelles submitted their proposal to the Impact Challenge, the judges were most impressed by the organization’s emphasis on government engagement as a key component to their budget monitoring work. Over the past year, we have kept up with the organization’s maintenance of important public relationships and have been impressed by Voies Nouvelles' consistent merging of the often siloed NGO and public communities.

Keeping with this organizational approach, last month, Voies Nouvelles gathered impressive group of 84 stakeholders to discuss regional education delivery. Tomo Onésim Cyrille, the Executive Secretary of Voies Nouvelles broke down the participants for me, who included a representative from the Ministry of Education, other ministry delegates, village chiefs, civil society and anti-corruption groups, a World Bank representative and someone from the German international development organization, GTZ. In much the same model that Global Integrity uses for its Dialogue Workshops, Voies Nouvelles used the results of its monitoring exercise— a study of public investment in Lekie over the three year period from 2007-2009— as the entry point for discussions of next steps and potential reforms.

The attendee list alone is a testament that the tenacity of Voies Nouvelles has not gone unnoticed. Take a look at Voies Nouvelles' newly designed website for more details on the January workshop and their other work.

And keep your eye on this space for the forthcoming announcement of Global Integrity's second annual Impact Challenge!

-- Norah Mallaney

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Rwanda, Encore? The Longevity of Rwanda's Governance Reforms is Uncertain

Post-genocide Rwanda has charged onto the international stage and is working hard to ensure the curtain doesn’t fall. The Global Integrity Report: 2009 finds that in Rwanda, the focus on building an institutional infrastructure to attract foreign investment has been one path for pursuing broader governance reforms. But can accountability reforms keep pace, or will Rwanda eventually end up on the list of one-man-rule countries?

Anti-Corruption is Good for Business

Actively promoting Rwanda’s image as a low-risk environment for foreign investment has been a priority for Rwandan President Kagame, who has been highly vocal in, what one Rwandan journalist calls, “his intolerance to irresponsibility and greed of any public figure.” Kagame’s anti-corruption campaign has led to the establishment of a number of strong internal oversight bodies within the Rwandan public sector. For example, the Global Integrity Report: 2009 speaks to the “fearless” reputation of the Auditor General.

The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) is another institution of note, newly created to manage the general business climate and institutional infrastructure while also providing oversight of state-owned companies. Budgetary support for both the RDB and the AG is subsidized by foreign aid, a scheme that poses a tenuous future for lasting accountability reforms: “Donors provide most of the government's operating budget and... can arbitrarily cut money if they so chose, as they did…when it became clear that the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Some donors suspended their funding.”

Keeping bad news out of the press in Rwanda has thus become key for the government, to keep both foreign investment and foreign aid flowing. Unsurprisingly, this has had consequences for press freedom in Rwanda. While violence against Rwandan journalists has greatly decreased in the past decade, Global Integrity data suggest that self-censorship may actually be on the rise. Global Integrity’s 2009 Rwanda scorecard points to multiple channels through which government interferes with the media-- through direct employment of journalists, tipping newspapers off on what stories to report, and the use of expensive advertising campaigns on which media outlets are financially reliant. Whether in print, broadcast or online outlets, the general knowledge of who is an “untouchable” leads to “a great deal of self censorship in Rwanda,” according to Global Integrity data .

English and ICT: Great for Tourists and Businessmen, but Practical for Citizens?

In December 2009, Rwanda was officially accepted into the Commonwealth, a group of English-speaking ex-British colonies from around the globe. As one Western media outlet described it, “Kagame made no secret about wanting to switch from French, the language of Rwanda's Belgium colonial roots, to English, and to transform his country into Africa's cyber capital.” Investment in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has been a top priority for the Kagame administration with many of those efforts having been put under the leadership of the RDB. Shyaka Kanuma, a managing editor at Rwanda Focus, puts it simply: "Rwanda's progress in ICT has undoubtedly made it a regional business hub."

This transition to an English and internet-centric nation is bound to have repercussions for Rwandan citizens. Implementing this top-down Anglophone agenda means that English is being increasingly phased into classrooms, previously Francophone road-signs must be painted over and government literature republished. The Global Integrity Report: 2009 captures another practical implication of the language change in the advertisement of privatizations: “Yes [privatizations are advertised], but usually only in English, and even more so since the government banned [sic] French in schools in 2009.” Our 2009 assessment also notes that while “significant government support for ICT…extends to both government and business,” it’s unclear what the immediate positive effects for citizens have been. Internet penetration rates and literacy rates are low across Rwanda, diminishing the utility of internet-based mechanisms for civil engagement.

The trickle-down effect of foreign investment and foreign aid on Rwandan citizens —whether through direct budget support to government agencies or in private ICT-oriented business partnerships—remains an open question . What is undeniable, however, is the increasing centralization of power in the executive branch and the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front party, calling into question just how long Rwanda’s growth can be sustained without more effective checks and balances. The challenging media environment is just one sign. In addition, Global Integrity’s data notes executive branch policy decisions are not always explained to a satisfactory degree; party and state resources are increasingly intermingled; and appointments to government positions are often made based on party affiliation. Low scores for enforcement of executive branch conflicts of interest regulations are an increasing cause for alarm.

Will foreign investment in Rwanda continue to motivate accountability reforms? Or will governance reform be outpaced by technological development, allowing a small circle of Rwanda’s connected insiders to control an increasingly large amount of power and wealth? The scene has been set; with the spotlight on Rwanda, the international audience watches.

-- Norah Mallaney
-- Image: A vender sells weekly newspaper Umseso for 500 Rwf. (kigaliwire.com cc by/nc)

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