Blog » Great article on fighting corruption by Jose Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International

Great article on fighting corruption by Jose Ugaz, Chair of Transparency International

Created Dec 03 2014, 11:56 AM by Tom Cochran
  • Blog Posts
  • Training Material
  • Resource Library

Think how corruption undermines City Creditworthiness in so many ways, from revenue collection to spending to governance. Fighting it requires leadership and tenacious hard work from local government leaders, managers, & workers, though. - Tom C.

 

"How to Fight Corruption"

Today Transparency International is a global movement with a wide membership that share a vision: a world in which government, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are free of corruption. Our tools are used by both the public and private sectors.

In October 2014 I was elected chair of Transparency International to lead us into our next decades.

This is a great honour for me as I have spent most of my professional career fighting corruption in Peru. I am best known for my role as ad hoc prosecutor during the investigation and eventual legal proceedings that brought to justice on corruption charges more than 1,200 people in Peru, including former president Alberto Fujimori.

Corruption will continue if people believe they can escape punishment. One of the most important themes of our continuing work at Transparency International will be to show that there is no impunity for corruption no matter how powerful you are or how much money you have.

This year we have launched a campaign called Unmask the Corrupt. Unmask the Corrupt | Transparency International

The goal of the campaign is to stop people who amass wealth from corruption enjoying that wealth. This campaign has three demands:

• to outlaw shell or anonymous companies that allow corrupt people to hide their wealth

• to introduce visa bans for people who are known to be corrupt so they can’t travel, and

• to make sure companies that sell luxury goods like property, yachts and jewels, find out where the money to buy them comes from and report suspicious buyers.

In our Corruption Stories collection here on Medium  you can read about the effects of corruption on individuals and what can be done to help them. Our website Transparency International - The Global Anti-Corruption Coalitionhttp://www.transparency.org/ has more information about our tools and our work. You can find a Transparency International chapter in your region here Transparency International - The Global Anti-Corruption Coalition , and discover what it does; our work on poverty and corruption is described in more detail here Corruption by topic - Poverty and development .

Transparency International is funded by governments, foundations and the private sector. We are politically non-partisan and place great importance on our independence.

This column will explore the impact of corruption on daily lives and what can be done to stop it.

The threat that organisations like Transparency International will not give up its fight or vision acts as a needed deterrent.

When I was appointed in 2000 to investigate corruption in Peru by the government that was the source of that corruption, few thought the apparatus of state and the president who oversaw it would be dismantled and the president himself put behind bars.

Transparency International chapters around the world are continuing this fight today. Here we will tell our stories from the front lines of the battle to rid the world of corruption from the corridors of power to the dark alleys of despair where a demand for a bribe can hold a life in the balance.