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#CorruptToo – new give in the fight against corruption?

Two-thirds of all the world's countries are struggling with serious corruption problems. It shows Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017 released this week. 




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

An analysis of the results from the 2017 index shows that civil society and the media have the least leeway in the countries that come out the worst. Lack of press and freedom of expression and protection of whistleblowers makes it dangerous to notify corruption. Journalists and civil society organizations are being persecuted with harassment, threats, and bureaucratic "red tape" in the fight against corruption.

Affects everyone. The security aspect is not as great in those countries where openness is greater and where the abuse of power is less, but corruption risk and lack of transparency apply to all countries and we must not look blind at the index.

Norway is also exposed to corruption risk in municipalities and central government, and collaboration with countries exposed to corruption is a challenge for Norwegian business and aid organizations. In addition, the major document revelations through "Panama Papers" and "Paradise Papers" give a clue to the extent of illegal cash flows and secrecy globally with ramifications also to Norwegian players.

An important tool in the fight against corruption is to tell the stories and in this way raise awareness, mobilize protests and take action. Prime Minister Solberg's statement at a press conference at the World Economic Forum of some sort MeToo campaign Anti-corruption is therefore a good idea that must be followed up. So the question is: What does it take to make this happen?

The threshold to say whether corruption is high in Norway too – only the bravest ones are standing out.

What can be done? Openness about what is going on is fundamental to both revealing and preventing corruption. Laws and regulations that promote transparency support the whistleblowers, and there is still some time left to put public shareholder registers, companies' country-by-country reporting and lobbying records in the Storting – to name a few. Furthermore, the practice of existing alert rules and public rules is a good start for getting the alerters on the track.

The threshold to tell about corruption and economic fraud is high in this country as well, and only the bravest ones stand out. Therefore, better arrangements must be made to warn of fraud and better follow-up of concerns in the workplace. , rruptToo can contribute to this and become part of the company's anti-corruption program.

#MeToo has grown into a global campaign within many professions in recent months. People had had enough of sexual harassment. Many have also suffered from corruption and abuse of power. Time to say goodbye orruptToo?

Gro Skaaren-Fystro
Gro Skaaren-Fystro
Skaaren-Fystro is a special advisor in Transparency International Norway.

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