Professor Juliet Sorensen (Northwestern University School of Law) and Northwestern Law students Michelle Kennedy and Cassandra Myers are attending the Sixth Conference of the State Parties (CoSP) to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in St. Petersburg, Russia. For more on the opening of the Conference, see here and here. Over the next few days, FCPA Professor will be publishing various posts regarding the proceedings.  

This post is from Cassandra Myers.

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Keeping the public informed and involved in the fight against corruption can be a valuable accountability tool. Nations have long struggled to find a mechanism to better incorporate public oversight without creating intrusion.

Open data may be the answer.

Yesterday at the United Nations Convention Against Corruption Special Event, “(How) Can Open Data Prevent and Fight Corruption?,” several panelists suggested that open data directly increases government accountability and correspondingly lowers incidences of corruption. Open data describes internal information that the government publishes to the public in an accessible and understandable manner.

While critics may argue that government information has been available for years through legal channels, the concept of open data focuses on the ability of a user to easily access and understand the material. A person could then compare and analyze figures to comprehend a data set’s implications. The information gives every citizen the ability to examine his or her government, and the transparency holds governments accountable, particularly regarding their expenses. The effort hopes to increase faith in all areas of government and deter individuals who may otherwise pursue corrupt practices. As Samuel De Jaegere, a UNODC Representative, described, “If you’re involved in corruption, you end up being a victim yourself.”

The panel served as an update on Resolution 5/4 from the 2013 Convention Against Corruption in Panama City, Panama, which urged countries to increase transparency by enhancing methods for the public to obtain information. Rita Karasartieva of the Societal Analysis Public Association described the open data interface implemented in the Kyrgyz Republic as a case study. The database is available over the internet and individuals can view particular government data in a simple interface by filtering for different categories—such as budget data and contract bid results.

The inclusivity was positive on a transparency front. However, as Karasartieva bluntly pointed out, “there were some problems.” When a country creates a data system, but does not teach individuals how to use or process that information in a meaningful way, public dissatisfaction can, and likely will, result. The daily update of information to the data system in one municipality caused a “bombard[ment]” of requests to the local Parliament, demanding the government reduce completely legitimate spending that people considered frivolous.

This response led panelists to largely agree on one caveat to open data systems: the unprocessed numbers published by the government are prone to confusion. Most of those accessing the public data did not have a coherent means of analyzing it to draw statistically significant conclusions. Rather, the public took issue with raw numbers, which can seem high for any government expense. Karasartieva explained that “It’s not enough to know how much has been spent on a school; you need to know what this money has changed at that school.” The problem limits the utility of the open data and potentially hurts the transparency effort by creating fervor over non-corrupt practices.

However, in describing many of the open data successes in Africa, De Jaegere promised that making data clear and accessible was only the beginning of the open data movement. Before the member countries focus on helping every individual analyze the given records, it is important to push more countries to establish publicly accessible data in general.

The presentation ended with descriptions of some of the large efforts of open data and the resulting accountability’s effect on everyday citizens’ lives. For example, when the United Kingdom began publishing heart surgery success rates by hospital, individuals could choose their care, and survival rates improved by 50%. Similarly, when Tanzania promoted inclusivity by creating a hotline for citizens when scarce water wells ran dry, the government could respond to provide more water quickly. Open data takes many forms, but the ultimate message is the same: the accountability of the government and the inclusivity of the people improved lives.

Professor Juliet Sorensen (Northwestern University School of Law) and Northwestern Law students Michelle Kennedy and Cassandra Myers are attending the Sixth Conference of the State Parties (CoSP) to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in St. Petersburg, Russia. For more on the opening of the Conference, see here and here. Over the next few days, FCPA Professor will be publishing various posts regarding the proceedings.  

This post is from Michelle Kennedy.

The Anti-Corruption Academic Initiative (“ACAD”) is a collaborative academic project that aims to produce support tools for academic institutions in order to encourage the teaching of anti-corruption issues through several disciplines. On Wednesday, the ACAD Initiative organized a panel discussion that highlighted the importance of using education to combat corruption. The ACAD, which provides its teaching materials free of charge online, has held meetings around the world to bring together professors who have experience in teaching anti-corruption with those have not to discuss lessons learned and provide support.

The panelists expressed the view that the role of academia is central in the fight against corruption. Through his teaching, Professor Nikos Passas at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University aims to give meaning to what effective implementation of the UNCAC looks like and to explore sustainable anti-corruption measures. He highlighted the need for educators at the university level to build sustainable initiatives in five central categories. The first is capacity building, which includes a deep awareness of anti-corruption issues and the policy measures necessary to address them. The second is the sustainability of anti-corruption, which requires that educators go beyond the law in order to create a culture of integrity. The third encompasses the understanding of the unique context in which corruption exists, which can be strengthened by including civil society in the discussion. The fourth is the independence of the educators and their ability to be transparent in order to provide pragmatic, realistic expectations rather than overpromising and underperforming. The final category of necessary initiatives is the sharing of results through communication and publication. Professor Gerry Ferguson of the University of Victoria Law in Canada has aided in this initiative by providing a free e-text book entitled Global Corruption: Law, Theory and Practice, available online at the ACAD Initiative website.

In addition to these priorities in anti-corruption education, Professor Speedy Rice of Washington and Lee University School of Law emphasized that teaching must go beyond the formal classroom setting. He connects students in his classroom with students from around the world via video conferencing to enhance the anti-corruption discussion. He has also brought a group of his students to countries in the developing world such as Liberia, where they design and implement anti-corruption workshop programs and interact with community members.

Professor Ligia Maura Costa, who teaches MBA students in Brazil, said that as an educator she is actually thankful for the recent corruption scandals in her country, like that of FIFA, because it shows her students that there are real consequences for violating the UNCAC. She emphasizes to her MBA students that it is possible to earn sustainable profits for a corporation without accepting or making bribes. Moreover, engaging in corruption will cause long-term damage to a company’s reputation and to one’s career that will far outweigh any short-tern benefits of engaging in corrupt practices.

In looking to the future, the ACAD envisions a continued integrated approach to the study of corruption. Corruption issues cannot be divorced from the issues of organized crime, drug trafficking, and international human rights. Because there have been qualitative reports of a significant increase in curricula that includes anti-corruption teachings across disciplines, the ACAD appears to be moving forward in achieving this integrated approach.

Professor Juliet Sorensen (Northwestern University School of Law) and Northwestern Law students Michelle Kennedy and Cassandra Myers are attending the Sixth Conference of the State Parties (CoSP) to the United Nations Convention against Corruption in St. Petersburg, Russia. For more on the opening of the Conference, see here and here. Over the next few days, FCPA Professor will be publishing various posts regarding the proceedings.  

This post is from Cassandra Myers.

In an age where governments take broad measures to reduce corruption, the illicit trade of artifacts and cultural pieces is often overlooked. Over a million archaeological relics have been stolen and sold on the black market, and corruption frequently serves as the medium for their illegal export.

Corruption invades the legitimate trading of artifacts and artwork in a variety of circumstances. As a commander of the Carabinieri Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Captain Francesco Provenza stated that public officials may intentionally mislabel important pieces of art as licensed to be exported or forge documentation for private parties falsely declaring that an artistic piece belongs to another country. Corruption among public servants has caused countries to lose invaluable pieces of culture that are fundamental to their history. This cultural trafficking amounts to a loss of between $3.5 and $6.5 billion each year, according to Celso Coracini, a Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer with the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch at UNODC.

To stem the tide of illegal artifacts trafficking, several state parties have established dedicated police forces to oversee the administration, investigate potential crimes, and enforce the proper regulations for the artistic relics in their countries. Italy serves as the example with their dedicated Carabinieri Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, which is a branch of the Ministry of Culture. The country is described as the “national center of gravity for analysis and intelligence, on behalf of all the national police forces.” Members of the Carabinieri work with university academics, scientists, and archaeologists to identify priceless heritage pieces, develop archaeological maps to preserve sites, and classify pieces for a comprehensive database.

Italy’s database supplements Interpol’s own records and serves as one of the most innovative responses to curbing corruption in the trading of historical pieces. It keeps track of all cultural items stolen from their proper country and contains information accurately identifying the artifacts to combat corruption. Currently, over 45,000 objects are catalogued. The data includes entries reported by 129 member countries, and proponents are seeking to expand its reach.

Because of the inherent international character of arts smuggling, even dedicated police forces can face difficulties in recovering significant pieces. Support among countries can be difficult to coordinate. Commander Provenza asserted that “to fight these forms of crime, international cooperation has always been fundamental” in returning historical pieces to their proper origins. The lack of a coherent strategy spanning all state parties hurts the recovery effort of every country.

As a direct result, the existing database contains many informational holes—almost all the entries describe European art, though historical theft occurs all over the globe. A comprehensive database has an “important preventative aspect,” as smugglers frequently focus their efforts on uninventoried items to avoid detection. The world “need[s] databases that are accurate and comprehensive,” because the absence of one “presents a number of challenges to our law enforcement and border protection,” according to Jason Reichelt, the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer of the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch at UNODC.

Increasing international cooperation could largely minimize the black market for artifacts. This would mean more countries incorporating their artwork into the database and assisting with individual investigations. Likewise, each nation should begin training their customs authority employees in taking preventative measures against smuggling and corruption in general.

The remedies can only be implemented if member countries acknowledge the broader problem of the cultural smuggling market according to Arkan El Seblani, a manager of the Regional Project on Anti-Corruption and Integrity in Arab Countries of the United Nations Development Programme. He insisted that raising awareness was necessary and that effective solutions are “about the community of people who take [the] tools and use them.”

Preserving the world’s history means eliminating the theft of significant works of art and culture. It can only be achieved through international cooperation.