News From NGOs

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upcoming fraud and corruption conference
march 15-16, Boston, USA

conference contact marcus evans

contact David Drey

The organizers note: - "Attending this event will promote benchmarking and networking across industries with other professionals in this field, and will help you to keep up on the emerging issues as well as scams that are out there. In addition to case studies from leading industry professionals from Fortune 500 companies, there will be a strong showing of governmental bodies and regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Attendees will learn the perspective of these agencies and will stay up-to-date on the current issues in fraud management.
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OPEN SOCIETY Annual Report...insights into 30 years of philanthropy.

*Open Society Institute supported film, "the Reckoning" follows International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and his team for three years across four continents.

Patriotism & Cosmopolitanism. "Ethics really begins with awareness and sensitivity to our responsibilities," says Joel H. Rosenthal, President of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, at the 2009 International Affairs Conference

Michela Wrong's Kenyan Book "IT'S OUR TURN TO EAT - The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower," published by Harper Collins...see Country Reports.

see news of Awards below

• 2009 Robin Cosgrove Prize Winners
• TI Latin Journalism and Corruption Prize Winners
• Goldman Environmental Prize Winners 2009
  (click on the above title to go to the story)
  
• Violence - A Special TI Report
• Second Annual Robin Cosgrove Prize Announced
• Transparency International Integrity Award 2008
• Global Witness Receives 2007 Commitment to Development Award
  
  

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  GIACC
  Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre

  ANTI-CORRUPTION TRAINING WORKSHOP

  PREVENTING CORRUPTION IN THE INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR

  The Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) is providing a three day anti-corruption training workshop which will be held in Amersham, England. The workshop will give participants a detailed understanding of what corruption is, how corruption takes place in the infrastructure sector, and how it can be prevented.  It will equip participants with the necessary knowledge and materials to undertake any or all of the following:

  -           Monday 1st/Tuesday 2nd/Wednesday 3rd March 2010

  -           Monday 10th/Tuesday 11th/Wednesday 12th May 2010.

  For more information and if you wish to participate please contact: neill.stansbury@giaccentre.org. 

  
  
  

  Sri Lankan Journalist Murdered - Courageous Anti-Corruption Reporter.

  Photo: Lasantha Wickramatunga receiving the 2000 Integrity Awards from then TI co-founder Frank Vogl. This leading journalist was murdered in January, the BBC reported.
  
  
  
• A SPECIAL REPORT ON VIOLENCE AND THREATS
  from Transparency International
  
  ON THE FRONTLINES
  a report that highlights -
  Anti-corruption Activists - Fighting corruption at a price - Why anti-corruption work is targeted - Risks around the world - Protecting actvisits
  
  
• Fighting corruption at a price Fighting corruption on the front lines can come at a devastating personal price. Those who persevere in exposing corruption are often subject to grave physical threats and state scrutiny. In many parts of the world, anti-corruption activists are at constant risk by those who wish to silence individuals involved in the fight against fraudulent ruling powers and corporations.
  
  Looking back at recent events, Transparency International (TI) reflects on the precarious situations that those entrenched in the fight against corruption are faced with, from Gabon to Nicaragua, Zimbabwe to Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Sri Lanka violent threats and murder have been used to silence those who speak out against the political regime. In Gabon, four civil rights activists were detained, refused access to lawyers or medical care and consequently accused of “propaganda”. In Zimbabwe, activists speaking out against the regime this year have found themselves locked up for an indefinite amount of time and denied legal rights.
  
  The situation is escalating in many countries and TI is gravely concerned about the harassment and intimidation of all those involved in the front line fight against corruption. Why anti-corruption work is targeted Corruption undermines democracy, human rights, civil liberties and sustainable development and, as such, is often deeply embedded within varying factions of society. The fear of economic loss drives many to threaten and target anti-corruption advocates. Those involved in illicit enrichment through corrupt practices will often stop at nothing to protect their unlawful gains.
  
  Not only are fraudulent financial gains at stake, but reputations, influence and relationships as well. Exposing corrupt acts, therefore, becomes a significant threat. Where embezzlement goes hand in hand with nepotism or entrenched networks of corruption, it is even riskier to expose or even inquire about questionable practices. Activists, investigative journalists and whistleblowers are on the front lines as they work to deter and detect corruption both in the private and public sector. One telephone call to the media or one letter to the right public official from a worker who has decided to expose individual or institutional malpractice and a whistleblower can potentially bring a corrupt system to its knees. TI is lobbying for stronger measures to protect anti-corruption fighters from retaliation.
  
  Posted 02/11/2009
  
  
• Awards - announcements from NGOs regarding calls for nominations or individuals who have recently received awards in the area of ethics and anti-corruption.
  
  
• Appointments - NGOs can post available positions or publicize new job appointments.
• Meetings - We will publish advanbce details of important meetings organized by not-for-profit organizations.
  
  
  

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AWARDS

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Robin Cosgrove Prize for Ethics in Finance

2009 Winners

The “Ethics in Finance Robin Cosgrove Prize” is being be awarded to seven young people who submitted winning papers on INNOVATIVE IDEAS FOR ETHICS IN FINANCE.

The financial crisis was largely triggered when trust in financial markets was destroyed by lack of transparency and evidence of the absence of ethical behaviour by many in the banking and financial business. The crisis has proved the relevance of the Prize for Ethics in Finance and Robin Cosgrove’s vision of the threat posed by lack of integrity, trust and ethical practice in banking and finance.

The winners of the Global Prize, now in its second edition, are jointly:

• Elise Pellerin and Marie Casimiro, both French, for their paper on “The need for order in the disorder of finance” (Du bon usage de l’Ordre dans le désordre de la finance) who will together receive USD8,000.
  
• Geoffrey See, from Singapore, who wrote on “Internationalism, Institutions & Individuals: Systemic Changes for a Systemic Ethical Crisis” (who will receive USD 8,000).
  
• Meredith Benton, of USA, wrote on “Innovative Ideas for Ethics in Finance” (she will receive USD4,000).
• In addition, the International Jury of the Prize awarded a “Special Commendation” to David Sifah of Ghana for his excellent paper on “Financial Ethics”. His participation in the Award Ceremony is made possible by Barclays Bank.

The new Ibero-American Prize, sponsored by the MAPFRE (Madrid), is won by:

• Leire San-José (Assistant Professor and Research Fellow, University of the Basque Country) on "Ethical Cash Management? A Possible Solution", with a prize money of 10,000USD.
• The second Prize (5,000USD) is awarded to Felippe Araujo (a Brazilian Phd student in Japan) who wrote on " Ethics: the key to Credibility".

Robin Cosgrove was a bright young investment banker when he sadly died at age 31. Robin worked internationally, spending much of his professional life in Asia. He came to believe passionately that a major barrier to economic development was the lack of integrity and ethical practice in the banking and financial systems.
Following Robin's untimely death in a hiking accident in the Alps, Robin's family determined to make this dream a reality and set up the Robin Cosgrove Prize with the cooperation of the Observatoire de la Finance, a Swiss not-for-profit foundation based in Geneva.

Comments by Dr Carol Cosgrove-Sacks:

The 2009 Prizes have achieved extraordinary global coverage. For the Global Prize, while half the candidates interested came from Europe, a quarter came from Asia and an encouraging 10 from Africa, together with some entries from North and South America. The Ibero-American Prize attracted interest from Brazil and four other Latin American countries and from Spaniards working in the area.

We are celebrating the success of some extraordinary young people who have articulated their own visions and interpretations of Ethics in Finance. Before we award the Prizes, permit me to thank all those who have contributed to the development of the Prize to date:

• to the members of the International Juries who have worked so hard, in several languages, to evaluate the excellent papers we have received; 
• to those who have generously financed the 2009 Prizes for Ethics in Finance -  RAB Capital of London, MAPFRE of Madrid, Guardian Wealth Management of UK and Geneva, Mr Harvey  McGrath of London – and Paul and I are very pleased to see their representatives here with us today;

• to our Promotion Partners, who have contributed significantly to the international dissemination of awareness of the Prize – Barclays Bank (London), Carnegie Centre for Policy Innovation (New York), EIRIS (London), Ethics World (Washington), the IMF Institute (Washington), Net Impact (a global website), New Europe (Brussels), Price Waterhouse Coopers (Geneva) ,Wealth Briefing (London) and to SFG;

• the members of the Promotion Board, most of them friends of Robin, from around the world, with special thanks to Stephen Harris, the Chair, who is with us today;
•  the staff of the Observatoire, especially our wonderful Administrator, Ms Sibilla La Spina, who has managed the strict and robustly anonymous evaluation process for the Prizes with efficiency  and great tact and charm.

Together, we have created a truly global presence. The website has had more than 40,000 visits. We have made the Prize for Ethics in Finance an instrument for reaching out to young people.

Posted 10/23/2009

The management of the Prize is under the supervision of the Observatoire de la Finance/International Finance Observatory, which is a Swiss not-for-profit foundation based in Geneva.  The Observatoire, working in cooperation with Dr Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, Robin’s mother and a former director in the United Nations in Geneva, has set up a distinguished international Jury to evaluate the papers submitted for the Prize. The Jury will allocate the prize money of USD20,000.

For more details on this competition, please visit the Robin Cosgrove Prize website. 

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2009 Prize to the Best Journalistic Investigation of a Case of Corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean, awarded annually by Transparency International (TI) and the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS).

Investigative journalism award goes to journalists from Brazil and Costa Rica

Series of articles revealed Brazilian public sector corruption and illicit accounts held by the Catholic Church in Costa Rica

The US $25,000 prize will be shared by Daniela Arbex, Táscia Souza and Ricardo Miranda, a reporting team from the Brazilian daily Tribunas do Minas; and Ernesto Rivera and Giannina Segnini from La Nación in Costa Rica.

The two winning stories were selected from among 189 entries from 19 countries. Arbex, Souza and Miranda investigated a complex web of corruption that granted public contracts to a major construction company which was owned by a powerful municipal official in Minas Gerais, a state in southeast Brazil. The series published by Rivera y Segnini followed an extensive trail of illegal financial dealings in several countries carried out by officials of the Catholic church in Costa Rica. Both investigations made a decisive impact, as the implicated individuals resigned from their positions and were brought before the court.

The jury awarded the second place prize of US $5,000 to Santiago Fascetto from the daily La Prensa of Panama, for revealing irregular payments made to the former president of the country, Martín Torrijos, as a result of a secret contract made with the government of the Dominican Republic.

The third prize, also US $5,000, was given to Jorge Antonio Ávalos, from El Diario de Hoy of El Salvador, for his series “Polémica Récord”. The articles covered the false allegations of environmental damage made against a battery recycling factory.

Ten other works from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela received special mentions. In the past seven years, the pieces presented have mainly covered investigations of corruption in the public sector (53.8 per cent), whereas organised crime and financial matters were exposed in 8 and 2.6 per cent, respectively, of all submitted works.

Posted 08/19/2009

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 The Goldman Environmental Prize
Seven Grassroots Leaders Win

“The industrialization of Africa by leaders acting without environmental conscience will be the ruin of us.” Marc Ona, Libreville, Gabon

Grassroots environmental heroes too often go unrecognized. Yet their efforts to protect the world’s natural resources are increasingly critical to the well-being of the planet we all share. Thus, in 1990 San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman (1924-1996) created the Goldman Environmental Prize. The Goldman Prize continues today with its original mission to annually honor grassroots environmental heroes from the six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America.

The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $150,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. the prize has been awarded to 133 people from 75 countries. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals. Previous Prize winners have been at the center of some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges, including seeking justice for victims of environmental disasters at Love Canal and Bhopal, India; leading the fight for dolphin-safe tuna and fighting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Since receiving a Goldman Prize, eight winners have been appointed or elected to national office in their countries, including several who became ministers of the environment. The 1991 Goldman Prize winner for Africa, Wangari Maathai, won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

2009 Winners

Maria Gunnoe, Bob White, West Virginia, USA: In the heart of Appalachia, where the coal industry wields enormous power over government and public opinion, lifelong resident Maria Gunnoe fights against environmentally-devastating mountaintop removal mining and valley fill operations.

Marc Ona, Libreville, Gabon: In Gabon, a country without a culture of civic engagement, Marc Ona led efforts to publicly expose the unlawful agreements behind a huge Chinese mining development project that threatens the sensitive ecosystems of his country’s equatorial rainforests.

Rizwana Hasan, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Working to reduce the impact of Bangladesh’s exploitative and environmentally-devastating ship breaking industry, leading environmental attorney Rizwana Hasan led a legal battle resulting in increased government regulation and heightened public awareness about the dangers of ship breaking.

Olga Speranskaya, Moscow, Russia: Russian scientist Olga Speranskaya transformed the NGO community in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia into a potent, participatory force working to identify and eliminate the Soviet legacy of toxic chemicals in the environment.

Yuyun Ismawati, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia: As waste management problems mount throughout the Indonesian archipelago, Yuyun Ismawati implements sustainable community-based solutions that provide employment opportunities to low-income people and empower them to improve the environment.

Wanze Eduards and Hugo Jabini, Pikin Slee Village and Paramaribo, Suriname: Wanze Eduards and Hugo Jabini, members of Maroon communities originally established by freed African slaves in the 1700s, successfully organized their communities against logging on their traditional lands, ultimately leading to a landmark ruling for indigenous and tribal peoples throughout the Americas to control resource exploitation in their territories.

Comment from Publish What You Pay - Revenue Watch Institute

"Marc Ona's courage as a campaigner for responsible resource management has helped the people of Gabon hold their government to account," said Julie McCarthy, Revenue Watch deputy director. "Revenue Watch and the entire global transparency movement are delighted to see his leadership recognized."

As Publish What You Pay coordinator, Ona promotes public disclosure and citizen participation in the management of Gabon's natural resources, often at great personal risk. Ona and several colleagues were detained for nearly two weeks in January, following a campaign of official harassment against activists who have raised concerns about the use of public funds. The detainees were released after an outpouring of international criticism, including formal letters from the U.S. Congress to the president of Gabon. Ona has also been barred from international travel on several occasions by Gabonese authorities since he attempted to visit New York City for a Revenue Watch conference in June 2008.
Gabon has endorsed the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global initiative for greater openness in the oil, gas and mining industries. "Successful implementation of the EITI requires the free and independent participation of civil society," said Anthony Richter, chairman of the Revenue Watch Institute and also a member of the EITI governing board. "Marc Ona and campaigners like him play a vital role in the EITI at the country level, where the process is crippled if it does not include the voices and interests of the citizens who seek improvements in their daily lives."

RWI hopes that the contributions of activists like Ona to accountable governance and development in Gabon will encourage the government to remove restrictions on civil society engagement in natural resource policy debates going forward.

Posted 04/27/2009

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Robin Cosgrove Prize for Ethics in Finance

Update as Short-List Announced of Essay Winners

The Robin Cosgrove Prize for Innovative Ideas for Ethics in Finance, (with more that 130 expressions of interest received), the overall quality level of the entries for the Prize was really exciting. The Prizes attracted an excellent response in 2009, with some very high quality papers.

The global Prize, with papers submitted either in English or in French, attracted interest from candidates from Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Mauritania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, Unites States of America, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

The Latin American Prize, with papers submitted either in Portuguese or Spanish, attracted interest from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and from Portugal and Spain.

After very thorough reviews and discussions, the Jury has short-listed a group of 8 papers that are the Nominees for the Robin Cosgrove Prize:

·104-Fishcake, Virtuous Enterprises
·109-GKHS, Internationalism, Institutions & Individuals: Systemic Changes for a Systemic Ethical Crisis
·111-IEF, Implementing Ethics in Finance: Investment as if People & Planet mattered
·115-Mae Jemison, Innovative Ideas for Ethics in Finance
·122-DS, Financial Ethics
·123-Emile Novis, Du bon usage de l?Ordre dans le désordre de la finance
·125-Lady, Ethics in cash management. Mutual cash holding as an answer
·126-FCA, Ethics, the key to credibility

Three papers have been also short-listed for the special iberoamerican edition.

The Jury is now deliberating the choice of one or more prizewinners and, if more than one is selected, how to allocate the sum of USD 20,000 between them.

The Robin Cosgrove Prize will be awarded in a ceremony on 22 October 2009 in Geneva.

The management of the Prize is under the supervision of the Observatoire de la Finance/International Finance Observatory, which is a Swiss not-for-profit foundation based in Geneva.  The Observatoire, working in cooperation with Dr Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, Robin’s mother and a former director in the United Nations in Geneva, has set up a distinguished international Jury to evaluate the papers submitted for the Prize. The Jury will allocate the prize money of USD20,000.

For more details on this competition, please visit the Robin Cosgrove Prize website. 

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The Transparency International annual Integrity Awards are the most prestigious awards to anti-corruption fighters. Fighting corruption – be it at the village or the national levels – demands courage.

TI 2008 Integrity Award Winners

Transparency International’s (TI) Integrity Awards honour the work of these courageous individuals and organisations that make a real difference in the fight against corruption. From accountants and public prosecutors to government officials and pharmacologists, their backgrounds may be diverse, but the message is the same: corruption can be beaten.
TI’s 2008 Integrity Awards pay tribute to two remarkable investigative journalists, David Leigh and Roman Shleynov, whose untiring determination to expose corrupt dealings in the face of formidable odds serve as inspiration to the anti-corruption movement.

David Leigh

Investigations Editor at the Guardian (UK)

“The OECD rightly harangues Britain for a dire record on tackling bribery – especially as the government is the worst offender”.
David Leigh (Guardian )

Roman Shleynov

Investigations Editor at Novaya Gazeta (Russia)

“It is not criticism of the Kremlin itself that endangers Russian journalists, but the threat they pose to an old system of relationships that benefits a tiny minority of people. And that will not be permitted.”
Roman Shleynov (New Statesman)

Global Witness Receives 2007 Commitment to Developement Award

The Commitment to Developement Award, sponsored by the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine has honored Global Witness for its hard-hitting investigative reporting which has exposed the links between corruption, conflict, and the natural resource trade.

Global Witness has crusaded to stop the plunder of rain forests in Cambodia and Burma and helped to bring the problem of conflict diamonds in Africa to the world's attention. Its first investigation of illegal timber sales by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia shut down that trade in 1995. A headline-making Global Witness report in 1998 showed how rebels in Angola were financing a deadly civil war by selling diamonds. That work, along with a January 2000 report by Partnership Africa Canada, another crusading NGO, on the role of diamonds in the civil war in Sierra Leone, figured prominently in the establishment of the Kimberley Process to certify diamonds that are not mined from conflict zones.  Global Witness was also a founder of the Publish What You Pay campaign, which seeks transparency about how resource-rich governments spend their share of mineral revenues.

Global Witness is now continuing to expose corruption in various areas, including corruption in the natural resource trade, ending impunity, and the role of financial institutions in money laundering.  The three co-founders and their 35 member staff post new articles daily on their website trying to keep global leaders on their toes. 

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