Corruption In Iraq & World

Iranian Corruption is Dragging Down Credibility of Religion

It seems that since Iran is a nationalized, socialistic country where the government owns everything, religious rulers run the government, corruption is a fact of life and residents are starting to resent it.

It also seems that if religious leaders are involved in running a corrupt government, they risk losing credibility with the public, because encounters with corrupt officials link their actions with the religious rulers.

Lessons Learned:
- If you are a religious ruler, don't allow corruption, because by allowing it, if affects the credibility of your religion.
vj

==============================================
from this link
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2008/06/0ad6e0d8-a45e-486c-b07e-740066adeb8b.html

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Iran: High-Level Corruption Becomes National Obsession

By Iraj Gorgin

Iran --Abbas Palizdar, head of investigation in Parliament on Judiciary, 2008
Abbas Palizdar set off a storm of controversy with his accusations
(RFE/RL)
Many Iranians believe the country's miserable economic situation is a byproduct of mismanagement and widespread corruption at the top.

Iran, the world's third-largest oil exporter, sold its crude last week for $136 a barrel. So the question on the lips of people in the streets is: Where's all this money going?

The answer, it seems, lies at the top.

Though Iranians are traditionally suspicious of their government and believe corruption is always in fashion among the ruling class, it was a little-known government functionary who kindled the fire of the public's latest obsession with suspected high-level corruption.

Abbas Palizdar claimed to be a member of the body commissioned by parliament to probe the judiciary. In late May, in a speech and interviews, he accused senior religious leaders and politicians, including former President Ali Abkhar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, of deep involvement in corruption.

Palizdar's remarks not only landed him in jail, they sparked a storm of controversy that continues to rage. He reiterated his charges on June 9 in an interview with Radio Farda.

"Yes, I spoke based on documents and evidence [that I have]," he said. "There are many more cases that I will reveal in the future. Everything that I said -- if [the government] didn't add anything to it -- is based on proof and documents."

Palizdar's accusations took many people by surprise.

At first, no one even acknowledged knowing him. Officials then called him an imposter, claiming no one had been assigned to probe the judiciary. A few days later, after he reiterated his accusations to the media, Palizdar was arrested and charged with spreading lies and slander.

At the same time, the Inspector-General's Office acknowledged that members of the Majlis, or parliament, had in fact presented Palizdar to the judiciary for the purpose of having him inspect and probe their legal records.

The incident became the talk of the country. In Tehran, some 200 protesters gathered in support of Palizdar, many of them briefly detained after clashing with police. Meanwhile, judiciary officials announced that 11 people, most of them government employees, had been indicted, and some arrested, in connection with Palizdar's comments.

Weapons Of Political Struggle

It all provided grist to the mill for those who are convinced that the ruling class -- in any guise and garb -- is corrupt. They say Palizdar's comments revealed nothing new. Others, however, claim that his comments were part of a conspiracy by a group in the government aimed at discrediting their rivals.

Some went even further, specifying that Palizdar's remarks were the first step in a bid by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his military supporters to smear rivals and prevent them from running in future elections by targeting them as corrupt.

Nehmat Ahmadi, a well-known lawyer in Tehran, tells Radio Farda that Palizdar either has powerful backing in the government or a very strong death wish.

"What he says is a kind of suicide," Ahmadi says. "If he wants to kill himself, that's natural. He knows that they will take him and put him in jail -- and that if they don't kill him, he will face a very harsh punishment."

Former President Rafsanjani is still a very influential political force (AFP) True or false, conspiracy or not, the accusations made by Palizdar seemed to gain a life of their own in recent days, becoming a red-hot subject of attack and counterattack for all political factions against each other.

Some analysts say this incident has brought to the surface the most important political issue in today's Iran: that is, the bitter power struggle between "old" and "new" revolutionary conservatives.

"The Iranian neoconservatives -- the new generation of conservatives that after the second election of city councils appeared on Iran's political scene -- took over the seventh parliament and grabbed the presidency," says Hossein Bastani, an exiled Iranian journalist who edits a popular Persian website in Paris. "This is a generation that feels they are there to radically change the structure of the Islamic republic and give the most important jobs to those whom they consider competent -- not the old, traditional conservatives."

Palizdar's corruption allegations singled out some of Iran's most influential religious figures, whom devoted Iranians consider pillars of the revolution. Professor Fereidoon Khavand, who teaches economics in Paris, says such talk is making Iran's economic situation worse because it weakens the confidence of merchants and local investors. In his opinion, the controversy is a key example of why religious leaders should stay out of the political fray.

"Shi'ism is a part of Iranian identity, whether we like it or not," Khavand says. "I was deeply sorry when I saw that the names of the most important religious leaders are mentioned as allegedly taking part in activities such as possession of mines and cars, favoritism, bribery, and so on. All this confirms that giving religion a role in political affairs is a bad idea."

Corrupt System Of Ownership

But Ahmadi, the lawyer, sees positives in the affair. He says regardless of whether the accusations were politically motivated, they have shone a light on an unseemly side of Iran's political and economic system.

"We could find [the roots] of corruption in the ownership system of Iran," he says. "The government owns everything: water, power, land, and sea. Everything you can imagine. In a system of ownership like that, corruption comes naturally."

Meanwhile, some want to see Palizdar's accusations investigated further. Borna, a government news agency, asked, "Why is nobody concentrating on the accusations while attacking Palizdar's background and personality?"

Khavand also thinks further investigation is warranted. "Corruption is a byproduct, a secondary thing," he says. "What is behind the corruption is Iran's economic and political system. Those are more important. So instead of focusing on why he [Palizdar] said such things and what are the sources, I guess we have to find out why corruption has such a wide dimension in Iran."

Last week, the fiercest battle of ideas about corruption and Palizdar's comments took place between Ahmadinejad's presumptive rival in next year presidential election and newspapers such as "Kayhan," which strongly back the hard-line president.

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the charismatic mayor of Tehran, wrote in his blog that "just talking about corruption and accusing people without any basis is by itself corruption and the main crisis of today's Iran is that morality is absent from the political scene."

In response, pro-Ahmadinejad newspapers attacked Qalibaf. But they may have missed a key sentence he also wrote: "Don't chop down a tree branch if you're sitting on it."

IRAN is Awash in Accusations of Financial Corruption by 44 Clerics

Hey, I don't feel so bad about corruption in Iraq after reading this expose by Iran Parliament's "Investigative Committee of the Majlis" of corruption in Iran. Many clerics not only skimmed money, but apparently planned plane crashes of opponents.

However, now the leader of the Committee has been imprisoned for "spreading rumor", and the actions may lead to a common "purge and eliminate" program. At least in the US, we only just imprison people and force them to work with lawyers.

And, here is a worrying quote:

According to the NCRI, Iran has allocated $2.5 billion to fund its proxy terror network in Iraq. The Daily Telegraph report on the NCRI's revelations said Khamenei earmarked the funds for the IRGC's infamous Qods Force.

The NCRI spokesman also told the paper that the regime's weaponry program is focusing on “powerful explosive devices that are capable of piercing impenetrable armour…It is not just Iraq that Iran is using as a springboard for its attacks against the West, now the weapons are going to Afghanistan too, as part of Iran's threat to the West." The daily adds: “To ensure its production is not vulnerable to attack [Iran] has spread manufacture across three secret facilities. The NCRI identified 16 training centres for insurgents and 51 secret smuggling routes across Iran's borders.”

=======================================================
from Fox News at:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,366041,00.html

The Shame Game: Rivals Accuse Leading Clerics of Massive Financial Corruption

Thursday , June 12, 2008
By Alireza Jafarzadeh

Tehran is abuzz with revelations from a regime insider about financial corruption of mind-boggling proportions by key figures of the ruling theocracy, including leading clerics. The whistle-blowing signals an escalation of factional feuding never before seen in the past three decades of the ayatollahs' regime.

The cycle of name-and-shame, with opposing factions alternately spilling the beans on each other, is spiraling out of control. The charges of massive financial fraud now out in the open first surfaced in a recent speech by Abbas Palizar, a member of the Investigative Committee of the Majlis (Parliament). He accused 44 of the most senior ruling clerics and officials of the regime not just of robbing it blind, but also of plotting the physical elimination of their rivals. He divulged information indicating that some of the plane crashes of recent years resulting in the deaths of several cabinet ministers and high-ranking Revolutionary Guards commanders were not accidents.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei quickly caught on to the seriousness of this new round of infighting. Seeking to slow its impact on the regime's disintegration from within, he devoted a good portion of recent public speeches to calls for unity, while expressing implicit support for Palizar. Khamenei keeps warning, to no avail, about the “enemy” lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike at the opportune moment. To be sure, what he is really calling for is the absolute obedience of all lesser factions in favor of the ruling one, which is effectively the political embodiment of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its military, security, political and financial interests.

Palizar's revelations are all the more significant because he is a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the IRGC. Traditionally, when the notorious IRGC gets involved in name-and-shame, it quickly turns into name-shame-purge-and-eliminate. This may very well be a prelude to the physical purge of rivals or even disobedient allies. The rival faction fired back, as Palizar is reportedly detained on June 11, 2008, on a wide range of charges including "spreading rumor."

The names named in the massive financial corruption scandal are: Ayatollah Imami Kashani, a member of the Guardians ýCouncil and Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader; Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardians Council and Assembly of Experts and former head of the ýjudiciary; Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a very high-ranking cleric who is also a source of religious emulation; and (to no one's surprise) former president and long-time big shot Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family.

The new phase of purge-and-eliminate, which began just before the March Parliamentary election, can be expected to worsen as the movement for democracy increases its pressure on ruling figures. Protesters are making inroads on college campuses, and strikes and protests have become commonplace in many factories and workshops in Iran.

Meanwhile world opposition to Tehran's continued nuclear defiance is expected to result in the tightening of UN and EU sanctions. The implications for the ruling regime are dire. At the same time, the US-Iraq security agreement to be signed this summer has set off alarm bells in Tehran, where the ayatollahs see it as a roadblock to their incursions into Iraq. Iraqi and American officials openly talk about Iran's campaign to torpedo this agreement, harshly criticized by just about everybody, from Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, to Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Larijani, the new Speaker of the Parliament.

The international indignation with Tehran has been fueled by recent revelations in London by the opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran. According to the NCRI, Iran has allocated $2.5 billion to fund its proxy terror network in Iraq. The Daily Telegraph report on the NCRI's revelations said Khamenei earmarked the funds for the IRGC's infamous Qods Force.

The NCRI spokesman also told the paper that the regime's weaponry program is focusing on “powerful explosive devices that are capable of piercing impenetrable armour…It is not just Iraq that Iran is using as a springboard for its attacks against the West, now the weapons are going to Afghanistan too, as part of Iran's threat to the West." The daily adds: “To ensure its production is not vulnerable to attack [Iran] has spread manufacture across three secret facilities. The NCRI identified 16 training centres for insurgents and 51 secret smuggling routes across Iran's borders.”

The internal disintegration of the ruling regime, rise of anti-government protests, setback in Iraq and international sanctions targeting its nuclear agenda, are all dynamically intertwined. But the core component of a continuing downward spiral for the regime, vital to the realization of democratic change, is the role of the democratic opposition movement.

The key to the success of democracy in Iran is to empower the Iranian people to take matters into their own hands, and the key to doing that is to untie the hands of their main opposition group. European Parliament Vice President Dr. Alejo Vidal-Quadras told the European Parliament in early June, "The National Council of Resistance of Iran, chaired by Mrs. Rajavi is the only hope, is the only solution, is the most direct, clean and cost effective way to bring democracy and freedom to the Iranian people and to free the international community of the threat that the present tyrannical regime in Tehran represents." Many in the United States Congress have already endorsed Dr. Quadras's view.

-------------------------------------
Alireza Jafarzadeh is the author of The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis (Palgrave: February 2008).

Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.

Until August 2003, Jafarzadeh acted for a dozen years as the chief congressional liaison and media spokesman for the U.S. representative office of Iran's parliament in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Philippines May lose Medical Tourism industry due to allowing Health Scams and Fraud to Flourish

Here is an example of the potential cost to a country if they do not act on cracking down (in this case) on fraud. It seems the Philippines is becoming like Nigeria - a hub for fraud and scams, and this interview indicates concern that recent Philippine based scams will harm the country's efforts to build a medical tourism industry.

I still want to know where all those shoes are that were purchased by the corrupt former leaders (Marcos?)!

What goes around comes around...
vj
=======================================================
from a Phillipines News network website at
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=117553

Health scams deterring RP's medical tourism bid

Recent health-related scandals could dampen the Philippine's bid as a medical tourism destination, a congresswoman leading a legislative investigation into the issue said Thursday.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said she also fears that health maintenance organizations (HMOs) considering investments in the Philippines might be turned off by the country's notoriety for health scams.

"As far as our medical tourism is concerned, this [insurance fraud] is one factor that is deterring our take off," Garin, a doctor by profession, said in an interview on ANC's "News at 8" Thursday morning.

Garin spoke about the US veteran fund scam where hospitals and medical practitioners are believed to have connived with US veterans to avail of
bogus health claims, some of which were allegedly padded by as much as 2,000 percent.

The anomalies are now the subject of US court cases.

A US federal judge has already ordered a Philippine company, Health Visions Corp., to liquidate all assets within 10 months to pay up the $100 million it
swindled from the US military's health insurance program. This came after the company pleaded guilty to uncovered fraud.

In her own investigation, Garin has noted that some of the institutions and personalities involved in the US veterans pension scam may be the same ones involved in an earlier anomaly in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth).

Last year, Philhealth uncovered a scam involving padded claims for cataract operations.

Garin said hospitals and medical practitioners participating in such scams are tainting the image of the Philippine medical community, dashing hopes that it can be considered as a medical tourism destination.

“If we talk about HMOs in other countries who would like to invest in our medical tourism industry, they always have the claim that if Philippines is noted for fraud what are we going to do about this?” Garin added.

Bad rep

Meanwhile, reports have said that the Philippine government has earned a bad reputation because of the perception that it is not doing much to help in the investigation and prosecution those involved in the scams.

An Associated Press report quoted Assistant US Attorney Peter Jarosz as saying that some of those indicted remain free, partly “because requests to extradite suspects from the Philippines have rarely succeeded.”

The same report quoted a spokesman for Pentagon's Tricare Management Activity, which runs the US military's pension program, as saying that other problem include language barriers, a lack of cooperation from providers and limited law enforcement resources.”

Garin then made an appeal to the Philippine government to help expedite the investigations as she noted that some doctors involved in some of the cases
have expressed desire to turn state witness.

Aside from the US pension fund scam, the Philippine medical industry was rocked by the scandal involving several doctors and nurses who allegedly violated the privacy of a patient when they took video footage of the operation to remove a body spray canister stuck from his anus.

The incident, dubbed the "Cebu canister scandal," is now the subject of a court case.

Chinese Party Boss Sentenced to 18 Years for corruption but not death

About 10 years ago, China set up their first "social security" funding system, and now political leaders are getting caught looting the funds for personal projects or funds. The articles below describe how the normal penalty of death for corruption was waived for the former Communist Party chief in Shanghai. His methods of extracting funds, including investing in shell companies, is one that was used prior to the1980's by union leaders in the US who controlled the union pensions (now much more controlled).

The last entry in the AP article describes how a new anti-corruption bureau in China had their website overrun by users the first day with people wanting to read more how to report corrupt officials. That is the type of model the Iraqi Commission of Public Integrity was formed on, but the Iraqis replaced the honest commissioner with a tainted one last year.

Anti-corruption success in China will depend upon an increasing support for the anti-corruption bureau and an increasing number of public prosecutions. In Iraq, there are many prosecution cases waiting in the courts, but no high level officials have been prosecuted and sentenced yet, so China seems to have more progress than Iraq.
vj

============================================================
from the latimes.com and the 2nd article below is from the AP

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-shanghai12apr12,1,5355897.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Former Communist Party chief in Shanghai sentenced for corruption
The graft charges are part of a massive pension fund scandal that toppled dozens of officials and business people.
By Don Lee
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

April 12, 2008

SHANGHAI — The Communist Party's former chief in Shanghai was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison for graft in a massive pension fund scandal that toppled dozens of officials and businesspeople and exposed some of the corruption behind the development of China's richest and most glamorous city.

The official New China News Agency said Chen Liangyu, 61, was convicted of extorting or accepting bribes of more than $340,000 and abusing his position. The court in Tianjin, where a secretive trial was held last month, also confiscated about $43,000 of Chen's personal assets, the news agency said.

The sentencing was the culmination of an investigation that began in mid-2006 into Shanghai's multibillion-dollar social security fund, which Chen and others misused for personal gain. Government prosecutors also accused Chen of using his power to benefit his family, friends and underlings, who took bribes from developers and other businesspeople in the form of salaries for phantom jobs, apartments and trips overseas.

Once a national Politburo member and one of China's most powerful men, Chen was ousted as Shanghai's party boss in September 2006 -- the highest-ranking official to be purged in more than a decade. It wasn't the bribes per se that got Chen in trouble, analysts said; in fact, the amount he was forced to give up was insignificant. Rather, they said, his downfall was due to his open defiance of central government orders to curb speculative real estate development that was fueling an overheating economy.

Chen's lawyer, Gao Zicheng, declined to comment. "I could only say that the procedure is legal," Gao said in a telephone interview. "Whether there is an appeal or not depends on Chen's personal will."

Rumors had swirled in recent days that Chen could receive a more severe punishment, possibly even death. But some analysts had expected him to get a lighter penalty, something closer to 10 years, partly because of the risk of fostering a brutal climate for the Communist Party's political elite.

"I was shocked this guy got 18 years," said Minxin Pei, director of the China program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "That sends out a very strong message. It's not just about corruption. It's about asserting central government authority. It says to local officials, 'No matter how strong you are, don't mess with us.' "

Corruption has been a long-standing problem in China, exacerbated by market reforms that have given local governments greater power and avenues to wealth, largely by exercising control over real estate. Beijing has conducted numerous anti-corruption campaigns over the years, but it has struggled to corral party officials in a system in which patronage and local political machines are hard to break.

In the last five years, nearly 15,000 officials, including 35 at the provincial or ministerial level, were investigated for embezzlement, bribery and misappropriation of public funds, China's top prosecutor said in a report last month.

Chen had built a strong political base in Shanghai over 10 years as a district head, mayor and then the party's secretary here from 2002 to 2006. Trained as an architect, he was said to have been protected by Jiang Zemin, China's former leader whose power base was Shanghai.

Hu Jintao replaced Jiang as president in 2003, and the removal of Chen was seen by some as Hu's way of eliminating a political enemy and consolidating his power.

Chen's fall from grace elicited comparisons to Chen Xitong, the onetime party chief of Beijing and a member of the Politburo who, under Jiang's maneuverings, was ousted in 1995 for corruption. Three years later, Chen Xitong was given a 16-year jail term but was released in 2006 for medical reasons.

Chen Liangyu has been held in Qincheng Prison in Beijing's northern suburbs. During his incarceration, some real estate projects in Shanghai were reported to have been put on ice, and some developers were said to have gone into hiding.

Chen's sentencing came after a closed trial in Tianjin No. 2 People's Intermediate Court, the second-lowest court in the Chinese legal system. No journalists or family members were allowed inside for the proceedings March 25, according to Caijing magazine, a respected publication in Beijing.

In addition to four charges of taking more than $340,000 in bribes, Chen faced two counts of abuse of power and a charge of dereliction of duty, the magazine said.

New China News Agency said Chen had helped some businesses obtain fiscal subsidies or compensation for building demolition, as well as in dealing with unused real estate. The news agency said Chen had urged his family members to return all the illicit money after the case against him was launched.

Charges that Chen abused his power were tied directly to his role in the funneling of Shanghai's pension money to developers and other companies for hotels and other projects. Dozens of Shanghai officials and businesspeople have been implicated in the scandal, and a number of them have been jailed. On Monday, Zhang Rongkun, once one of the richest men in China, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for securing loans from Shanghai's pension plan for use in his company's private investments in a toll road.

With Chen's sentencing, observers said, the Shanghai pension fund case is essentially closed. As a result of the scandal and the ensuing probe, officials scrutinized other such funds in China. Analysts said it wasn't clear how much of Shanghai's social security money that was put at risk was lost or recovered.

don.lee@latimes.com
====================================================
from the AP
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5joRKgqff5aaQCr72TS6czPMdZ0UQD8VVP0780

Ex-Shanghai Party Boss Gets 18 Years

By CARA ANNA – 20 hours ago

SHANGHAI, China (AP) — China sentenced the former Communist Party chief of the country's financial capital to 18 years in prison Friday, but spared him the usual punishment for serious economic crimes — death.

Chen Liangyu, who had been a member of China's powerful 24-seat Politburo, was the highest-level Chinese official to be purged in a decade. Like most high-ranking officials, however, Chen avoided the death penalty.

"This is what I suspect they see as a reasonable compromise," said Steve Tsang, a China expert at St. Antony's College at Britain's Oxford University. "A strong message was sent out, yet it protects current and former members of the Politburo from the full price they have to pay for certain crimes in China."

Chen had been accused of being at the center of a scandal involving the misuse of a third of Shanghai's pension funds — a case that highlighted Beijing's troubles in keeping corrupt officials from looting social security funds set up only a decade ago.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Chen was jailed "for taking bribes and abusing power." It said the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court showed leniency because the 61-year-old Chen "showed remorse" and returned the money.

Chen's lawyer, Gao Zicheng, indicated Chen would appeal. "If Chen appeals, it's not over," he said before hanging up.

Chen showed no emotion in court footage aired on state-run China Central Television. It was his first appearance on state-run TV since he was summarily dismissed from his posts in 2006.

The party chief in Shanghai, China's commercial and financial capital, is one of the country's more powerful posts. Chen's removal signaled President Hu Jintao's growing power within the factions that comprise the party's collective leadership. The man who replaced Chen, Xi Jinping, has already been promoted again and is widely seen as being moved into position to succeed Hu.

The Shanghai scandal saw more than an estimated $400 million in pension funds improperly invested in real estate and toll road projects that included Shanghai's new Formula One race track. More than 25 local officials have been detained in the investigation.

Chen used his influence as party boss in 2004 to channel $120 million in social security funds to an unidentified company, Xinhua said citing court documents.

At the center of Chen's rise and fall lay real estate deals, a driver of Shanghai's fantastic growth. The court found him guilty of extorting money accepting bribes of more than $340,000 from organizations and individuals over an 18-year period from the time he headed one of Shanghai's districts in 1988.

Among Chen's crimes, Xinhua said, were funneling land to his brother to develop, getting a new house for his father and arranging a deputy general manager's job for his son at the local soccer team, the Shanghai Shenhua Football Club.

Tsang, the China expert, said the reported amount was almost certainly far less than Chen actually took and was fixed by political bargaining.

"The party boss of Shanghai guilty of a quarter million dollars' worth of bribery? Of course it's too little! Come on, give me a break," Tsang said, adding that the sentence was clearly politically decided.

The court on Friday also confiscated $43,000 of Chen's assets.

Corruption is a popular topic in China. In December, a Web site created by China's newly created anti-corruption bureau crashed after barely a day because too many visitors tried to log on to register complaints.

In 2006, the vice mayor of Beijing who oversaw Olympic construction projects was fired and expelled from the Communist Party on charges of bribery, though Beijing officials insisted Liu Zhihua's alleged misdeeds had nothing to do with Olympic projects. He has yet to be put on trial.

At the same time, China installed a new supervisor for construction projects for the Beijing Olympics as part of efforts to prevent corruption. In January 2007, China's top auditor said fighting corruption in construction projects for the Olympics would be a priority.

Last year, nearly 2,000 local government officials were either disciplined or charged with crimes, the Xinhua News Agency reported in late December, citing the Communist Party's organization department.

"Ah, what country doesn't have corruption?" asked a woman selling pirated DVDs on a Shanghai street after being told of Chen's sentencing.

"What can I say about this? Are they going to take the money and give it back to the people? Ha! I don't think so," said the woman, who gave her family name as Zhang.

Uk Accused of Failing to Implement Anti-Bribery Activities

The UK has always been a laggard in implementing or enforcing anti-corruption or anti-bribery regulations. In the 1970's, I worked for a US construction materials firm that was bought out by a large UK firm. We were in a price war in one Texas market, and the new President appointed by the UK parent company asked why were we dropping a price to compete? Why didn't we just get around a table with the competitors like the UK folks do, and decide a market price to be used by all, and decide on the market share for each firm? They had no concept of anti-trust regulations. We had to send him to a two day crash course on US anti-trust laws and pro-competitiveness training.

The article below give a good idea of the still existing UK resistance to dropping the right to bribe someone to get business. Thus, if you have a competitor from the UK, watch out for bribes they might pay to the decision maker (just like the middle east). And, now you know why many bribe taking Iraqi's escape to live in London. They don't really fear much prosecution.
vj

=======================================================
from
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-pressure-mounts-on-britain-to-stamp-out-the-brownenvelope-culture-805110.html

Independent.co.uk
The pressure mounts on Britain to stamp out the brown-envelope culture

After the dropping of the BAE-Saudi case, other bribery and corruption probes are moving slowly, and international authorities wonder if we mean business in tackling corporate kickbacks. David Connett reports

Sunday, 6 April 2008

Britain's woeful record in combating bribery and corruption is again in the spotlight after an OECD team arrived in London to examine why we are failing to bring prosecutions against UK firms accused of kickbacks and graft.

The Government's record was put under microscopic scrutiny as the OECD sought reassurance about the UK's commitment to fighting bribery and corruption after the controversial decision to halt the BAE/Al-Yamamah inquiry. The review team, led by French and Canadian judges, closely questioned officials and investigators last week about the decision to abandon the probe into the Saudi arms deal.

In particular, they were seeking assurances that the parliamentary claim of former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith – "no company is above the law" – was more substance than spin.

Britain has come under intense pressure to improve the way it tackles corruption after the worldwide outcry sparked by the dropping of allegations that BAE bribed senior Saudi officials to win a lucrative arms deal. The decision to stop the Al-Yamamah investigation on national security grounds alarmed the OECD, whose last two reports have been critical of UK efforts to combat payola.

The OECD is particularly critical of the Government's failure to introduce modern anti-bribery legislation and of the continuing lack of any prosecutions. The concerns have been underlined by the fate of a second overseas corruption investigation. The case, which would be the first brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), has been delayed in the Attorney General's office for more than five months.

Last October the SFO recommended pursuing Vuc Hamovic, the chairman of London-based firm Energy Financing Team. Mr Hamovic, a British-Serbian national, has been questioned as part of an investigation into energy deals and the fate of £6m of aid money given to the Balkans to finance better electricity supplies after the war in Bosnia.

The Attorney General's office insists it is not stalling on the case. A spokesman for Energy Financing Team said the firm had been told no action would be taken and that it was confident Mr Hamovic had no case to answer.

Among those questioned last week was Robert Wardle, outgoing director of the Serious Fraud Office. The SFO has been given the lead role in handling foreign bribery allegations and has created a special unit to vet them. The Government has given it £22.8m to investigate UK involvement in a sanctions-busting scandal. More than 70 British firms are implicated in a UN report that claims thousands of international companies paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's former regime in Iraq under the discredited oil-for-food scheme. Lord Goldsmith pledged the money as he was defending his decision to Al-Yamamah inquiry.

The SFO has indicated, however, that it expects the alle- gations, if proved, would generally not constitute foreign bribery offences under UK law and would be prosecuted on other grounds.

The OECD was keen to quiz Mr Wardle about his role in the Al-Yamamah decision and about the need for better laws to take on companies and business people who bribe to win contracts.

Britain prosecutes bribery under a confusing mix of common law and statutory offences. The Crown Prosecution Service has abandoned using one of the main laws – the 1916 Prevention of Corruption Act – after concerns about its compliance with the Human Rights Act. Lawyers and investigators now rely heavily on clauses in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, which specifically outlawed bribes made outside the UK, or involving foreign agents with no connection to the UK.

The Law Commission is currently reviewing bribery law and is expected to produce a draft Bill in the autumn. This is the main reason why a draft Corruption Bill introduced by Lord Chidgey in 2006 was quietly strangled by denying it parliamentary time, according to Whitehall sources.

Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Wilmott, head of the City of London Police's Economic Crimes Unit, was also questioned by OECD investigators.

The City force has set up one of the world's first dedicated units to investigate allegations of overseas corruption involving UK firms. Originally conceived to probe seven or eight cases a year, it currently has 26 ongoing inquiries. The 10-strong team has been further boosted by funding of more than £100,000 from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, for more officers to cope with the extra caseload.

Det Ch Supt Wilmott has dismissed suggestions that the UK is reluctant to deal with overseas corruption. "Within 12 months of government funding, we have taken on 26 cases. We had arrested suspects within six months. I am confident it is only a matter of time before we achieve a successful prosecution. There is no question of a lack of commitment on our part."

Not all the evidence the OECD team heard was so positive. Sue Hawley, director of Corner House, the campaign group for social justice, said: "I should think they [the OECD] have little to be impressed about. It has been five years since their first report and the Government has done little to respond to their concerns. In fact the only thing the Government has really done is introduce a new draft constitutional Bill which will give the Attorney General a new power to halt bribery prosecutions on national security grounds."

Corner House, along with fellow pressure group Campaign Against the Arms Trade, launched a legal challenge to review the SFO's decision to abandon the Al-Yamamah investigation. They expect to learn this week whether their challenge has been successful. If they are, ministers may find themselves in the dock yet again.
Search Query: Independent.co.uk The Web Go Advanced search

Kenya Launders $1.2 Billion skimmed out of country

Kenya is corrupt. It is apparently so corrupt that a bank involved in laundering huge amounts of funds out of the country (and we assume, including US foreign aid dollars) was able to get a website shut down that posts "leaked" documents on the laundering operation.

They are www.wikileak.be (the new version - not the one shut down by a California court).

See an article here about the shut down of the website:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__080218_us_court_attacks_web.htm

And, below is a short article with links to a longer set of documents on the newer website:
vj

========================================
See this and more at:
http://wikileaks.be/wiki/A_Charter_House_of_horrors

Charter House Bank (CHB) wasn't the biggest bank in Kenya. In fact by the time it was placed under statutory management last year it was ranked 26th. But CHB was not a normal bank. At the same time as having most of its branches within Kenya's largest supermarket chain (Nakumatt) it moved tens of millions of dollars in single transactions around the world. It was not so much in the business of keeping people's assets as moving them.

Its first claim to notoriety was a botched anti-money laundering operation against an account holder called Crucial Properties, who in 2001 received 25 million US Dollars from Liechtenstein for the purposes of "property development and trading in Africa." The account holder also ran a minor eatery in Nairobi which financial detectives didn't think suggested the ability to attract tens of millions of legitimate dollars. The 25 million dollars vanished one day after the courts let through a stay order against the investigators. Thus began a suspicion that CHB was in the business of laundering the proceeds of illegal business, and in fact constituted a threat to national security. Just three years before, al-Qaeda terrorists had bombed the US Embassy in Nairobi, killing 214 people.

Today CHB stands accused of being at the centre of a complicated series of financial scams, tax evasion schemes and money laundering operations that saw billions of Kenyan shillings (hundreds of millions of US Dollars) expatriated from the country by unidentified persons. Close to 100 accounts have been investigated by Kenyan financial police, anti-corruption officials and the Central Bank itself. Questions have been asked in Parliament and by foreign diplomats, and at least two whistleblowers have fled the country to take up asylum in the USA. CHB was the subject of a special audit by the Government of Kenya published here for the first time. At stake is over 1.5 billion dollars worth of transactions, which dwarf most scandals in a country known for mega-corruption.

Investigating this fraud may have cost a former Governor of the Central Bank his job. Certainly, virtually all those hired to investigate CHB have either fled into exile or been moved off the case. So it doesn't surprise some, that the Kenyan Finance Ministry is accused of foot-dragging in a scandal which the Government's own secret audit claimed "threatens the stability of the Kenyan economy." For some strange reason, CHB appears to enjoy political protection at the highest levels in Kenya.

Tanzania Gets $700-million from Bush while rated "Very Weak" in Anti-corruption efforts

BBC World News today said that President Bush gave foreign aid of $700-million to Tanzania, but if you visit this link from www.globalintegrity.com you can see their 2006 report said that Tanzania was rated "very weak" in preventing corruption.

http://www.globalintegrity.org/reports/2006/tanzania/index.cfm

So why does the US keep giving foreign aid to corrupt countries?

Below is an AP report on the grant, plus I have attached a copy of the 82 page Global Integrity "Corruption Notebook" Report on Tanzania and a graphic from Global Integrity clearly illustrating corruption issues for the country.
vj

View this photo

Download tanzania_2006_global_integrity_rpt.pdf

===================================================

Here is an AP article on the "grant" from Bush to Tanzania:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jKsz4ko98jM7GN35kK5yGTzHWHQAD8URSTF80

Bush Touting U.S. Aid in Tanzania

By BEN FELLER – 9 hours ago - Feb 17, 2008

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) — President Bush, targeting disease and poverty in travels across the African continent, touted a soft-power agenda Sunday in Tanzania where he received a hearty, red carpet welcome by a crowd waving tiny U.S. and Tanzanian flags.

Bush opened his second day in Africa in the seacoast city of Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, which represents the kind of place Bush is visiting on his six-day trip: a stable democracy that's grateful for U.S. health and economic aid.

Bush, who arrived Saturday night to the delight of thousands ringing the roadside, met Sunday with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete. Bush came with help in hand — nearly $700 million aid to help Tanzania build up its infrastructure. Bush also was visiting a hospital in the city center, discussing his anti-AIDS initiative and visit families of victims of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing here.

Unlike in the United States, where his approval rating hovers near his record lows, Bush is treated here with reverence. Men and women wear clothing bearing his image.

Tanzania, where the economy is growing but many live in sickness and poverty, is the only country on Bush's tour to merit two days of Bush's time. Playing to audiences here and lawmakers back home, he is aiming to showcase U.S. compassion and the results it produces.

Kikwete's prominence is on the rise as the new head of the African Union, and his session with Bush is expected to cover violence and repression in troubled Kenya, Chad and Zimbabwe.

The two met in the president's historic residence, overlooking the Indian Ocean.

The shadow of Kenya, just to the north, loomed large. Both parties in that nation's disputed presidential election — one that led to bloodshed — are working on a power-sharing deal. Bush is sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya on Monday to back the effort.

Tanzania, an agriculture-driven country of roughly 40 million people, is trying to broaden its ties to the U.S. across political, economic and military fronts. It is the latest country to reap benefits from the Millennium Challenge Account, one of the initiatives underpinning his trip to Africa. It provides U.S. aid to countries that govern justly, shun corruption, help their people and support economic freedoms.

The nearly $700 million compact, which Bush is signing Sunday, is the largest in the program's history. Much of it will underwrite improvements to the country's transportation.

Yet the timing is awkward, given all the emphasis on good governance.

Just this month, Kikwete dissolved his entire Cabinet over a corruption scandal involving a contract with a nonexistent firm supposedly based in the United States.

Tanzania is also one of the countries targeted by Bush's emergency AIDS relief effort, which has helped provide medicine and care to millions. More than two-thirds of all people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. The region accounts for more than three quarters of all AIDS-related deaths in 2007.

He began his African agenda in Benin in West Africa. After his time in Tanzania, Bush plans to visit Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.

South African President elect accused of Corruption

South Africa's political party, the African National Congress (ANC), just elected a leader, Jacob G. Zuma, who will be next in line for President, and who is under investigation for corruption charges. He claims the charges are being filed by the incumbent African President, Thabo Mbeki, in order to make Zuma ineligible for Presidency.

The article lists some of the charges, but not many details, other than bribery is involved, and Zuma has previously been tried in courts for accepting bribes. Below the original article is another one published a day later by the Los Angeles Times.

Here, however, we see that South Africa does not have a truly independent anti-corruption investigation agency. The article says the existing group reports to the incumbent President Mbeki, and they are called the Scorpions.

Thus, the accusations could indeed be politically based, since the Scorpions are NOT independent of the country leadership. Apparently, their lack of independence is known, because the ANC also voted to have the Scorpions disbanded. Or, it could be that the ANC members don't care about corruption charges, and want them quashed so their newly elected leader can take office.

Thus, a lesson learned is that a country's anti-corruption agency and their staff must be independent of the leadership. It was that way in Iraq with CPI (Commission of Public Integrity) until the independent Commissioner of CPI was replaced in a coup by the Maliki government who placed another person in charge without following existing laws or using due process.

Quote from the article below about the new President Elect:

"Mr. Zuma was fired as South Africa’s deputy president in 2005 after investigators tied him to a bribery scandal involving a multibillion-dollar military contract for a French manufacturer. Mr. Zuma fended off a related corruption charge on procedural grounds earlier this year, but the accusations against him have never really gone away."

vj

==================================
from NyTimes.com at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/21/world/africa/21safrica.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Dec. 21, 2007

Prosecutor Says Zuma Charges Near

By MICHAEL WINES and GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: December 21, 2007

JOHANNESBURG — South Africa’s chief prosecutor indicated Thursday that his agency would soon bring criminal corruption charges against the Zulu politician Jacob G. Zuma, two days after Mr. Zuma’s election as leader of the African National Congress put him in line to be the nation’s next president.

The acting head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Mokotedi Mpshe, said in a radio interview that a lengthy investigation of Mr. Zuma was complete and that “the evidence we have now points to a case that can be taken to court.”

Asked whether that meant that prosecution of Mr. Zuma was imminent, Mr. Mpshe replied, “I should say so.”

Mr. Mpshe’s remarks, broadcast on the Johannesburg station Talk Radio 702, signaled the advent of what is likely to be a long stretch of political turmoil until allegations of corruption against Mr. Zuma are resolved.

A criminal conviction would end Mr. Zuma’s political career, for South Africa’s constitution bars felons from becoming president of the country. Mr. Zuma has repeatedly suggested through his lawyer that the corruption inquiry is an attempt by enemies to destroy him politically, a charge many say is directed at South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki.

Mr. Zuma’s lawyer, Michael Hulley, repeated that on Thursday, telling Reuters: “I can only speculate that the actions of the national director are fueling and lending credence to the idea that state resources are being used against my client.”

Mr. Zuma soundly defeated Mr. Mbeki this week in the race for the leadership of the A.N.C. As president, Mr. Mbeki oversees the national agency that both investigated the corruption allegations against Mr. Zuma and is now preparing to bring charges. The A.N.C. adopted a policy statement this week urging that that agency’s investigative unit, nicknamed the Scorpions, be disbanded.

Both Mr. Mbeki and Mr. Zuma have vigorously denied any political enmity, and they took pains after this week’s leadership vote to make a show of unity and friendship, but political analysts generally agree that their rivalry runs deep.

Adam Habib, a leading analyst who heads a governance project at the Human Sciences Research Council, a research organization here, said it was unlikely that Mr. Mbeki was behind Mr. Mpshe’s announcement of an impending prosecution of Mr. Zuma.

Rather, he said, Mr. Mpshe probably intended to remove any doubt that Mr. Zuma’s new status as a political leader would deter his prosecution, which Mr. Habib said could begin early next year.

“They want to signal that it’s going to happen,” he said, “and I think they’ve made a strategic decision that they’re going to do so in a kind of off-the-cuff remark, to prepare the groundwork.”

The A.N.C.’s secretary-general, Kgalema Motlanthe, indicated at the A.N.C.’s national conference in Polokwane this week that Mr. Zuma would likely remain the party’s president throughout any criminal proceedings, saying it would be “very hard to act against somebody on the basis of allegations.”

Mr. Zuma was fired as South Africa’s deputy president in 2005 after investigators tied him to a bribery scandal involving a multibillion-dollar military contract for a French manufacturer. Mr. Zuma fended off a related corruption charge on procedural grounds earlier this year, but the accusations against him have never really gone away.

Prosecutors have long said that they were preparing to file new charges. But the comments Thursday come at a particularly sensitive time, two days after he ousted Mr. Mbeki as the party’s leader, and on the day when he planned a closing victory speech at the A.N.C. national conference.

Ahead of the A.N.C. election last week, South African newspapers quoted the prosecutors as saying that they had gathered enough new evidence on alleged bribes paid to Mr. Zuma to bring charges.

On Tuesday, after three days of politicking at the national conference , the A.N.C.’s 3,900 delegates voted to oust Mr. Mbeki as leader of the party and give the job to Mr. Zuma, whose popularity has surged despite facing the corruption charges and other rape charges. With his election, Mr. Zuma became the favorite to succeed Mr. Mbeki as president when Mr. Mbeki’s second term ends in early 2009.

Michael Wines reported from Johannesburg and Graham Bowley from New York.

========================================================
from Los Angeles Times on Thurs., Dec. 20, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-soafrica21dec21,1,692432.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true

S. Africa's Zuma may be prosecuted

The new leader of the nation's ruling party and presidential hopeful could face corruption charges.
By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 21, 2007

POLOKWANE, SOUTH AFRICA -- A top prosecutor said Thursday that South Africa's controversial new president-in-waiting, Jacob Zuma, could be charged with corruption within weeks, an action that could threaten Zuma's bid to take over the country's leadership.

The acting director of the National Prosecuting Authority, Mokotedi Mpshe, said there was enough evidence to prosecute him on corruption charges, stealing Zuma's thunder just before his first public speech as newly elected leader of the African National Congress, the country's ruling party. A conviction would dash his presidential ambitions.

Despite the legal cloud, Zuma took to the stage in the final hours of the ANC's national conference, where he was voted in as party leader this week, swaying with both arms raised and singing a victorious rendition of his trademark song, "Bring Me My Machine Gun."

In a news conference later, Zuma repeatedly sidestepped questions about the possibility of criminal charges being filed.

"I am not charged. There is no charge. Why should I discuss speculation about something that doesn't even exist? I would not be allaying fears, I would be raising fears."

He said there was no strategy in the ANC to deal with the possibility that he could be charged and face a lengthy court case.

If Zuma were convicted, his ally and the new ANC deputy leader, Kgalema Motlanthe, would step up as heir apparent to the country's president, Thabo Mbeki, whose term ends in 2009.

Mbeki, formerly a close ally, sacked Zuma as the country's vice president in 2005 after Zuma's former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of graft in a multibillion-dollar arms deal. Shaik was convicted of soliciting a $72,500-a-year bribe on Zuma's behalf from the French arms company Thint.

Shaik was also convicted of paying Zuma to push Shaik's business interests. Zuma later was charged, but the case was thrown out of court on a technicality; however, a court judgment this year opened the way for charges to be filed again.

A new court affidavit was filed last week outlining evidence that bribes taken by Zuma were as much as three times higher than previously thought. Zuma's legal team has fought to exclude some evidence in the case, while he mounted his campaign for party president.

His supporters insist that the charges were cooked up by his enemies to block him from the top ANC job.

In an unrelated case, Zuma was acquitted of rape last year.

One Mbeki supporter from the president's home town of Dutywa in Eastern Cape province, Victor Stofile, 42, a local councilor and conference delegate, said the renewed possibility of charges was problematic for the ANC.

"You can't take a person who has this doubt hanging over him and make him president of the ANC," he said.

In his speech to delegates, Zuma called for unity and sought to mend fences with Mbeki, his rival for the party presidency, referring to him as a friend, a comrade and a brother.

Zuma insisted that there was no bad blood between supporters of the two leaders who fought over every party position.

The Zuma camp, however, omitted the finance minister, Trevor Manuel, and the head of policy in Mbeki's presidency, Joel Netshitenzhe, from its ticket for the ANC's governing body, the national executive committee.

Zuma repeatedly brushed off questions about why Manuel, who is seen internationally as the linchpin of South Africa's economic stability, was not on the ticket. He said Manuel had done a good job of achieving fiscal discipline.

But perceptions that Manuel is being eased out by the Zuma camp and might be excluded from a future Zuma Cabinet will fuel unease in the business community and among investors about the country's economic direction.

Zuma's allies in the Communist Party and the unions complain that under Manuel, the government's policies have been too pro-business. Zuma, for his part, denied Thursday that there was concern in the business community about his links to the unions and the Communist Party, while pledging more consultation with his allies.

There were already signs emerging Thursday of a future clash between the two rival centers of power -- the ANC and the Mbeki government. One of the first battles is likely to be fought over the board of the state-owned network, the South African Broadcasting Corp., which is perceived as being supportive of Mbeki and the government.

Another issue will be the future of the Scorpions, the corruption task force that operates within the National Prosecuting Authority and has pursued high-profile investigations of Zuma and others. As well as electing Zuma, the ANC national conference voted to urge the government to dismantle the Scorpions and move a corruption and graft unit into the police force.

He has been reported as supporting a renewal of debate on the return of the death penalty, but denied raising the issue. However, he said that if the people of South Africa wanted to debate the issue, they should.

Before being voted in as leader, Zuma had hinted at a different approach than Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" on Zimbabwe -- refraining from criticism of human rights abuses in order to engage the government of President Robert Mugabe.

But Zuma pledged to continue the quiet diplomacy, saying the targeted sanctions of Western countries against Mugabe and other Zimbabwean officials had achieved nothing.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com

New Russian Prime Minister says he will reduce "Major Issue" of corruption

Well, well - Russia announced a new Prime Minister, Viktor Zubkov, and most of the headlines said he pledged to reduce Russian corruption. This Moscow Times article describes some anti-corruption initiatives and Zubkov's anti-corruption background. Hey, maybe THEY can reduce corruption in Iraq??? But, then other sources are quoted as saying it is a false discussion to get Russian minds off other Russian problems.
VJ

=========================================

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/09/14/041.html

Friday, September 14, 2007. Page 5.

Zubkov Vows to Tackle Corruption
By Catrina Stewart
Staff Writer

Grigory Sysoyev / Itar-Tass

Viktor Zubkov, President Vladimir Putin's nominee for prime minister, said Thursday that fighting corruption would be the main theme of his administration, but analysts expressed skepticism that the crackdown would be effective except at the lowest levels of government.

"Corruption is the major issue in our efforts to increase the effectiveness of the state administration," Zubkov said, according to an account to reporters by State Duma Deputy Sergei Glazyev of a meeting with him Thursday.

Zubkov, an official with anti-corruption credentials thanks to his efforts in getting Russia off the Financial Action Task Force's blacklist, is widely expected to receive the Duma's approval for his appointment Friday.

On Thursday, outgoing Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov was holding his last Cabinet meeting, one day after handing in his resignation to Putin.

Ahead of the upcoming Duma and presidential elections in December and March, respectively, Putin has pushed the fight against corruption to the forefront of the political agenda. Zubkov, a close Putin ally, has headed up the Federal Financial Monitoring Service since 2001, putting him at the sharp end of the government's efforts in fighting money laundering.

Duma Deputy Gennady Gudkov, who sits on the Duma's anti-corruption commission, said Zubkov was ready to "seriously tackle" the issue. He said, though, that there was a lot of work to be done.

Speculation has raged about who will stay in the Cabinet following Fradkov's resignation. Acting Economic Trade and Development Minister German Gref and acting Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov, two liberal ministers who have come under fire from allies of Putin, could be the highest-profile casualties of the expected shake-up.

The new Cabinet is expected to revive a stalled anti-corruption bill, Glazyev said.

Meanwhile, the Security Council is to meet in October to discuss the findings of an interdepartmental working group on how to tackle corruption, Vedomosti reported. The group, which is preparing a package of anti-corruption legislation, is headed by Kremlin aide Viktor Ivanov.

But analysts said combating graft was beyond any single official.

"Corruption is ubiquitous in Russia. It is the very texture of Russian life," said Masha Lipman, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "It would need a deep restructuring of the whole political system and the process of policymaking. What drives corruption is the large-scale involvement of the state."

"Everything here is rotted by corruption. I don't think Zubkov ... is going to position himself as a reckless warrior against corruption," said Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the Council for National Strategy and a former Kremlin adviser. "[His appointment] is just a public relations campaign. It is designed to concentrate people's minds on the problem of corruption and distract them from other issues."

Kirill Kabanov, head of the nongovernmental National Anti-Corruption Committee, said he did not see any efforts by the government to address corruption other than at the lowest levels.

"I would like to see issues such as systemic corruption and the independence of the judiciary tackled," he said.

Zubkov "will look to establish his credentials with a high-profile corruption arrest of a senior bureaucrat," said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib. "This will set up him nicely to keep Putin's seat warm."

Are Women Elected Officials an Anti-dote to Corruption for Sierra Leone?

This article describes some of the corruption problems and effects in Sierra Leone.  Several quotes also bring up the idea that electing women would reduce corruption because they are less willing to do such things.  In most of my reading, I don't think I read even once of a woman convicted of corruption - it is mostly a male specialty!
vj

from  www.AllAfrica.com
Women As an Antidote to Corruption?

Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
ANALYSIS
10 August 2007
Posted to the web 10 August 2007

By Mohamed Fofanah
Freetown

Sierra Leone will hold general elections Saturday with a number of significant achievements in hand, not least maintaining peace for five years.

Between 1991 and 2002, the country was wracked by a brutal civil war that pitted government forces and other militants against the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), notorious for its amputation of limbs as part of a terror campaign to control civilians.

Two polls have been successfully completed since the end of the conflict, efforts made to integrate demobilised combatants into civilian life, and also to retrain the army -- which has mounted several coups in this West African country since it gained independence in 1961. In addition, millions of dollars in aid have been spent on rebuilding the state.

However, " corruption, fuelled no doubt in part by extremely low civil service pay and emoluments, remains the elephant in the room," notes the International Crisis Group (ICC), a Brussels-based think tank, in a Jul. 12 report: 'Sierra Leone: The Election Opportunity'.

Sierra Leone came 148th of the 163 nations surveyed for the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), produced annually by the Berlin-based graft watchdog, Transparency International. It scored 2.2 on a scale of zero to 10 used for the CPI; a rating of less than three indicates that "corruption is perceived as rampant" in the public sector of the country concerned, notes Transparency in the Nov. 6 press release for the last year's index.

An Anti-Corruption Commission has proved unable to turn the tide. Commission head Henry Joko Smart "...has focused almost exclusively on junior and mid-level officials," says the ICC, "thus sending the wrong message about endemic corruption."

To date, those convicted of graft have included a caterer at a mental hospital, the accounts officer of a library, and the headmaster of a primary school -- all implicated in embezzling small amounts of money.

The failure to curb corruption has resulted in a drain on government funds needed for social services -- important in any country, but perhaps especially so in Sierra Leone where under-development fuelled by graft was one of the key contributors to the 11-year civil war.

Certain woman candidates have seized on this dismal track record in their campaigns to win a place in Sierra Leone's 112-seat parliament. The outgoing legislature is dominated by men: just 14.5 percent of posts in this institution were female hands. Of the 566 people contesting the Aug. 11 legislative poll, 64 are women.

"We are less corrupt than men," says Luciana James, a candidate for the People's Movement for Democratic Change.

Notes Husainatu Jalloh, running on behalf of the United Peoples Party: "Women are naturally afraid of disgrace; that's our make-up, and we know that women suffer more in corrupt countries. We spite (reject) corruption, and that is what I have been telling my people."

Sierra Leone has the world's highest maternal and child mortality rates, according to the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report. In an overall assessment of development, the country ranked 176 th of the 177 nations listed.

Some three quarters of people in Sierra Leone live on less than two dollars a day, notes the U.N. report, and unemployment is widespread.

While the country has extensive diamond reserves that could contribute substantially to alleviating poverty, it is estimated to be losing substantial amounts of tax revenue through smuggling of the gems. Diamonds were also used to fund the recent civil war, with former Liberian president Charles Taylor -- now being tried for war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone -- having supplied the RUF with weapons in exchange for diamonds.

"I tell my constituency that if corruption is to be tackled, every Sierra Leonean has to decide that they want to be corruption-free, and then we strengthen the structures we use to fight corruption -- and we put women in parliament and ministries and parastatals," says Elizabeth Lavalie, a candidate for the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), and deputy speaker of the recently dissolved parliament. "Then we would (be) on a strong footing in fighting corruption."

Are these women right in believing that female legislators will automatically take the high ground when it comes to graft?

Kadijatu Barrie, for one, appears to have reservations on this matter. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate said during her campaign that -- if elected -- she would look into whether any women in public office had been involved in graft. The NDA is the only party to field a female vice-presidential candidate.

But, notes the ICC, "Rooting it (corruption) out requires more than higher salaries or occasional exposure and prosecution of an official. It demands a thorough review of the system perpetuating the practice."

Seven parties are contesting the elections, with the SLPP, the All People's Congress and the People's Movement for Democratic Change considered the front runners.

SLPP presidential candidate Solomon Berewa, the current vice-president, is tipped to win the poll that will decide the next head of state.

About 2.6 million people are registered to vote. The latest census puts Sierra Leone's population at approximately five million.