|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) is under way in Putrajaya, Malaysia – the conference runs from 2 – 4 September 2015 under the theme Ending Impunity: People. Integrity. Action.
This year’s IACC brings together 1 000 anti-corruption fighters – Corruption Watch among them – from more than 130 countries to forge solutions to the ongoing, outrageous situation of people in power stealing from the public purse and escaping justice.
(i to r) Patrick Keuleers of the UNDP, Sarah Chayes from the Carnegie Endowment, South Africa’s public protector Thuli Madonsela, and session moderator Elena Panfilova of Transparency International, after the first plenary at the 16th IACC earlier today.
South Africa’s public protector Thuli Madonsela took part in the first plenary session today, which focused on how the global community can work together to better understand the effects of impunity on people, and to ensure security and justice for all, especially for those who fight against impunity for corruption. “Integrity organisations need to work with civil society,” she said.
At the end of the session, Transparency International (TI) chairperson José Ugaz announced the global launch of a competition of sorts, to find the three worst cases of corruption in the world. The contest forms part of TI’s Unmask the Corrupt campaign.
The competition will play out in three stages. Firstly, people around the world will be asked to nominate their favourite candidates for the worst case involving grand corruption. Then once all the nominations are in, the voting stage will commence and here again, people from any country can vote.
The third stage will yield the ‘winners’ – but there is a difference in that TI has pledged to proceed with a case against the winner. In the final stage, TI will reveal what action it intends to take, to pursue the case. This will include special public campaigns, which will be set in action to target and sanction the individuals or organisations involved.
“The competition is not just to raise awareness, but also to bring someone to justice and to stop impunity,” said Ugaz.
IACC delegates will be the first users of the system, and for the duration of the conference they have been asked to visit the TI booth and vote for their preference from a handful of pre-selected candidates, including Fifa and Petrobras. At the end of the conference TI will announce the winner.
About Unmask the Corrupt
TI’s Unmask the Corrupt campaign was launched in 2014 to clamp down on loopholes in the international system that allow the corrupt to hide their identity, travel freely and spend their dirty money on luxury goods with ease. The campaign has already resulted in a number of breakthroughs, including the G20’s adoption of beneficial ownership principles and a new EU directive to tackle money laundering and anonymous shell companies.
