THE GOVERNMENT IS yet to implement measures targeting interference in public policy and corruption in local government, a report from Transparency International Ireland has claimed.

The group has published an EC-funded study on safeguards against corruption in Ireland. The National Integrity Systems study did praise recent moves to increase transparency in how parties are funded and legislation against white collar crime and bribery. It also “acknowledges that the discredited light-touch approach to financial regulation has been replaced with a more assertive model”.

However, TI Ireland claimed that nearly half of proposals to tackle corruption which it made in its previous study three years ago have not been implemented.

TI Ireland’s CEO John Devitt said that in 2009, the organisation had estimated that the Irish economy was losing around €3bn annually from white collar crime and corruption and said that there was “an urgency” to sort this out in light of the economic crisis facing the country

The study also claims that the country needs a charities regulator, a review of media plurality given the increased share of INM taken by Denis O’Brien and more transparency in everything around appointments to State bodies and the running of political parties.

The report said that there has been no progress in the following measures which it recommended in 2009:
Additional resources to be allocated for agencies such as the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, the Competition Authority, the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
Corruption immunity programme to be introduced

It has made new recommendations in this study including:
1.Increasing education and awareness-raising on corruption and anti-corruption
2.Promoting civil society participation in anti-corruption measures by publishing stats on prosecutions in that area, among other measures
3.Ireland should join the Open Government Partnership initiative
4.Ireland should sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on access to official documents
5.The effiicacy with which all agencies dealing in combating corruption operate here should be reviewed
6.Self-reporting of white collar offences should be encouraged with co-operation of prosecution officials
7.Stronger anti-corruption safeguards should be introduced for local government
8.Public officials should be given clearer and more comprehensive rules around disclosing interests
9.There should be “maximum disclosure” by political parties in their annual accounts, including the debts and assets of all branches
10.A charities regulator should be established
11.Ensure greater transparency in appointments to State bodies
12.Setting up regulation of cross-media ownership to encourage media diversity
13.Media codes of conduct should be supplemented – including “guidance on the use of payments to sources and (to) prohibit payments to public officials”.

Current measures to control conflicts of interests are
noticeably inadequate. In addition, political lobbying
remains entirely unregulated, while comprehensive
whistleblower safeguards have yet to be introduced
throughout the public and private sectors.

Efforts have been made to strengthen the powers of
a reformed Central Bank, which now incorporates
the Financial Regulator. However, it remains to
be seen whether these measures will break the
historical tendency of the regulator to be a ‘servant
of the banks, not a master’.

No S&*t sherlock
Alan Shatter has taken some steps but the rate of progress is flustratingly slow.

10.A charities regulator should be established

One of the biggest tax avoidance scams going.

One of the biggest tax avoidance scams going.

The overseas charities are really going to suffer a blow following the news of alleged misappropriation of state aid funds in Uganda

A regulator at home can only be a good thing....even if it means another quango, but God knows what happens to money in the more corrupt destinations

Reading the material it appears that, in Europe, Denmark is perceived as the least corrupt country. Yet when you look at the comparative data, Denmark has few of the measures that Transparency Ireland is campaigning for e.g. whistleblowing legislation, register of lobbyists etc.

So, seems to me, the answer lies elsewhere than legislation and regulation. It would be interesting to get a deeper analysis of what there is in Danish culture, society, history etc that we might be able to learn from.

Inequality and corruption tend to go hand in hand.

The overseas charities are really going to suffer a blow following the news of alleged misappropriation of state aid funds in Uganda

A regulator at home can only be a good thing....even if it means another quango, but God knows what happens to money in the more corrupt destinations

Really?

The mind boggles at he amount of charities that seemingly campaign for the same thing,
I don't know the difference between, concern, trocaire, goal, oxfam etc. Also those niall Mellon type operations where people raise money to travel or the ones where you're practically paying for a two week walking holiday in spain......I'd like to see more scrutiny here.

At the other end I wonder what money goes on protection, both official and, erm, Sicilian style and paying for permits, visas and all the rest