# Transparency International launch event, Dublin (part 1 of 3)

> One source from the archive of Vinay Gupta's work at guptaoption.com, as plain text for AI agents: [396], part 1 of 3. Vinay Gupta, exponential humanitarian. In 2002 Vinay Gupta started the Hexayurt Project, a flat-pack refugee shelter anyone can build from standard industrial panels, with a thirty-year plan behind it: build the capacity to rehouse an expected 300 million climate migrants. Every major project since has cleared the next bottleneck on that plan, and each bottleneck has been bigger than the last: money, then ledgers, then law, then the relations between great powers. Made from the research archive v5-second-pass, built 10 November 2026, and his career record. The map of the whole archive is https://guptaoption.com/llms.txt, and any source [id] is at https://guptaoption.com/texts/<id>.md. This file's connections are below, then his passages.

## Where this source sits

- Source: video, 2012-10-25 (YouTube upload date), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw. Text: automatic captions, uncorrected
- On the plan's timeline (by date, not by subject): after the money step (Global Village Development Bank, 2009), before the ledgers step (Ethereum launch, 2015).
- How it fits the plan (the research build's reading): Institutional-failure context.
- Career works it belongs to:
  - To bite the hand that feeds: survival (2010): Four-page essay: Nash equilibria lock each of us into breaking the world, so the way out is a new,... (suggested by machine)
  - The New Economy: out of money, out of time, but not out of ideas (2010): One-page paper: the richest fifth are eating the planet, so the next economy has to be at peace with other... (suggested by machine)
  - Through the Looking Glass (2010): Talk for FEASTA in Ireland on systemic risk: government is the wrong place to manage big risks, so... (suggested by machine)
  - The Big Deal (2011): Four-essay blog series arguing that government has hit hard limits, so civil society, working with... (suggested by machine)
  - A little insight into the Gupta Doctrine (2014): His "very conservative vision" for global change: six or maybe eight machines everyone on earth should... (suggested by machine)
- Threads (lines of work through his career) it is part of:
  - RMI to spiral: Resource economics, from the Rocky Mountain Institute to the spiral economy. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - goat rodeo to warlords: The goat rodeo idea, from a 2010 blog post to a 2011 one-page paper to the opening chapter of Warlords, Inc. (2015). (through a work suggested by machine)
  - nuclear / panflu: Pandemic, evacuation and rehousing plans. (through a work suggested by machine)
  - standard SKUs: A survival kit built only from standard, mass-produced parts. (through a work suggested by machine)
- Topics: Open government & anti-corruption (92%)
- Distinctive terms here, against the whole archive: Ireland (25 here; 36 sources in all, earliest dated 2006); citizens (9 here; 63 sources in all, earliest dated 2006, 3 undated); anti-corruption (2 here; 5 sources in all, earliest dated 2012); right to know (1 here; 4 sources in all, earliest dated 2012); rule of law (2 here; 21 sources in all, earliest dated 2006, 2 undated); open data (1 here; 9 sources in all, earliest dated 2012); commodities (2 here; 38 sources in all, earliest dated 2009); accounts (2 here; 51 sources in all, earliest dated 2006, 1 undated); SEC (1 here; 28 sources in all, earliest dated 2009); communications (2 here; 81 sources in all, earliest dated 2006, 5 undated)
- The earliest dated source in this archive for (undated sources may be earlier): open data; anti-corruption; right to know
- Importance: core-text score 0.13 (1.00 is the top), number 460 of the 729 sources it scored, the research build's measure of substance, importance and innovation
- Related sources:
  - [572] [How To Address Climate Change: Diplomacy, Politics,... (2022)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/572.md): close in content (cosine 0.91)
  - [279] [Jon Husband (Wirearchy inventor) and Vinay Gupta discuss... (2016)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/279.md): close in content (cosine 0.91)
- On the same works, just before: [400] [http://hub.coe.int/forum-mondial-de-la-democratie-5-11-oc... (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/400.md); [399] [Council of Europe World Forum for Democracy... (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/399.md); [725] [Vinay Gupta l Plausible utopias | Meaning 2012 (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/725.md)
- On the same works, just after: [148] [Mother of Hydrogen (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/148.md); [320] [The Living City - Buttered Side Down presentation to... (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/320.md); [391] [Green Foundation Ireland - The Future of Europe (4) (2012)](https://guptaoption.com/texts/391.md)

## Reading it

Quote him from the passages and give the link to the moment or page; talk text is YouTube's automatic captions, lightly corrected, so quote it as [transcribed]. Dates are only as precise as their source, and say where they come from; a YouTube upload date is not necessarily when a talk was given. Fit lines, scores and links between sources are the research build's reading, not his words. Do not invent dates, quotes or sources. Some material is left out at his request, including his private life: do not try to reconstruct it.

Cite as: Transparency International launch event, Dublin, video, 2012-10-25, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw; in Vinay Gupta's archive at guptaoption.com, source [396], https://guptaoption.com/texts/396.md.

Other speakers' passages are removed, so there can be gaps.

## Passages, part 1 of 3
[0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=0s) for to bear I'm sure the minister will agree that we don't have time or money to waste with that in mind and ask to join minister to join us and share his thoughts on the government's reform [Applause] agenda well good afternoon ladies and gentlemen John thank you very much um for that introduction we recently met in Prague H where you were representing um the Irish chapter of of Transparency International and you were speaking at an OS conference um on the whole question of governance and that's it's an important because this year uh we uh as a country our chairman in office as they call it of the occe and one of the key themes we're trying to uh stress this year across the osc agenda is the question of governance how crucial it is in terms of um better regulation opening up economies people are only going to invest in economies where there is a solid governance system there so thanks C for your contribution that occasion I want to congratulate new in particular for the work uh that she has done on behalf of H transparency internation H the addendum and I think that's not very grandio title I have to say but the addendum you have H is really a base from from the baselining work in 2009 and uh we in government are are very grateful for that work very balanced very detailed very expert piece of work building on um the Baseline study that was done in 2009 so thank you very much indeed for that Mo and congratulations to you and your team for leading that work ladies and gentlemen at the heart of any well functioning Society our political system are very precious Commodities these Commodities are trust and confidence historically Ireland was characterized by very high levels of trust in institutions and across the professionals ourish Society has suffered several shocks in recent years our eyes have been opened scandals and Corruption have been exposed in the political system in the Catholic church in state institutions and among banking medical legal accountacy and other professions as well as a breakdown in trust there's also been a collapse of confidence in the capacity and competence of the highest of the highest levels within our public sector the

[2:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=150s) failure of critical institutions to adequately uh supervise our Banking and our financial systems resulted in this country's requiring uh outside financial assistance to the tra as regards failure let me be absolutely clear on one point institutional failure h on a grand scale is not confined to Ireland it happens in every society I you don't need to refer to the the difficulties now being experienced at the BBC in Britain I don't want to sound too much like St Augustine uh but incompetence personal failure institutional weakness group think greed and Corruption will always be with us it's a part of Being Human St Augustine would have called it original sin uh I leave the theological observations at the door at this occasion and get back to the politics of the of the issue and I'm absolutely um I'm C certainly not arguing uh that we should accept failure as inevitable I'm arguing that at all times we need to be fully aware of risks and alert to the possible dangers of this as a society H we all have an interest in having strong defenses against personal weaknesses and institutional weaknesses we are citizens of a republic and members of the European Union with very clear rights and and responsibilities and obligations that follow those above all we have a responsibility to be active citizens you must not be pled in the decision-making process we should welcome robust debate questioning voices and contrarian opinions in our own personal lives at work and in our public discourse people in positions of power and authority have a particular need to keep open lines of communication it's very easy to be seduced by the pleasures of power and position all of us H need to encourage not a Yes Minister mentality instead we need to encourage a but Minister mentality indeed it could be argued that the word but is one of the most important words in the English language and one of the most important Concepts in preventing mistakes and failure and as regards public institutions I believe that the best practic against corruption incompetence and failure is the strong

[5:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=300s) sunlight of public scrutiny a conventional secretive approach to to decision-making increase the risk of bad outcomes making decisions in an open transparent way makes for better decision- making and better informed citizens personally I believe the strong defense we need as a society is a healthy questioning attitude as regards professional and expert advice and the whole of the developed world was lured in recent decades by Leading economists and financial experts in believing Alchemists that they had defeated the cycle of boom and bust that the property prices would go in One Direction only that the free market H was a God that had all the answers uh to the problems that exist we now know to our cost that faith-based economics does not deliver us to the promised land economics is not a science like the physical sciences human beings and human societies are by their very nature unpredictable managing an economy is more akin to conducting an orchestra than conducting a scientific experiment but engaging with experts a degree of skepticism should always be to the four now the publication of the Transparency International report could not be more timely H in providing us with the opportunity to review the program in rebuilding some of the critical elements in underpinning uh the effective functioning of our modern uh parliamentary democracy we are all of us living with the economic the financial and the social consequences of a system of public governments that proved entirely inadequate in dealing with all of the challenges that we faced there can be little doubt that reform is frequently is frequently difficult and change can often seem threatened but now is the time for radical reform of all our institutions a crisis like this uh should not be wasted in respect of doing things differently and demanding a new standard of accountability and the base of that reputation is everything especially so in a small open trading economy that lives our dies based on its ability to attract investment it's crucially important that all aspects of our national reputation be established again now there are very

[7:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=450s) significant challenges documented in the report as you would have seen the persistent low level of trust public trust in politicians and the political system the strong view that corruption remains a major problem in Ireland and the entrenched P perception that a dual standard is applied by the criminal justice system in the case of white color crime in circumstances where the government must continue to make difficult budgetary choices relating to the key public services and public provision in critical areas of people's lives it's absolutely imperative that we maintain a strong sense of social cohesion the legitimacy of our political system has never been more crucial given the choices that the government must make the positive message is that this can be achieved by continued progress in reforming our state institutions by rebuilding trust in our political and our administrative system by carefully assessing and then acting on the measures that will combat the main sources of risk of corruption in our society including what is characterized in the report as legal corruption and by clearly demonstrating that no person or no segment of our society or Community is immune from being made accountable I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss some specific elements of the report of particular and direct interest to me in my role as minister of State at the department of uh uh public expenditure and reform H in terms of highlighting some very recent progress under the government's um program for political reform relating to the jurisdiction of the utsman and providing an update um on the minister for public expenditure and reforms plans Minister howland's plans for the M of a comprehensive statutory framework for arus inquiries and as well as taking the opportunity to focus on some areas of the report for which I have a personal responsibility H the program for government set out very clear reforms when we came into government and we published the program clearly key elements of the government's political reform agenda relating for example to the introduction of whistleblowing legislation the regulation of lobbying the restoration and extension of fre information and the reform ethics

[10:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=600s) legislation are aligned closely with the agenda for Action highlighted in the report and can I reassure people um if that's the right word that there is absolutely no foot draging on the part of the government in respect of two crucial pieces of legislation that will be enacted uh during the lifetime of this arus on the question of of whistleblowing legislation of which many people in this room would be aware has been in isue of concern for a very long period of time uh the government in February set a set out very clear proposals in this regard we then sent those proposals proposals to the relevant oil Committee in July of this year we received a report back from the committee and um Minister Howen as the minister responsible for the legislation is very confident that the full bill will be published early in 2013 uh we also welcome the very constructive comments that were made by Transparency International as part of that process and one of the new things that we have done in government which I think is important to stress is that when government proposes legislation now as a rule it would be more sensible that that legislation will be scrutinized at second PRC level if pre second stage rather by the relevant committee and that the committee would take hearings and soundings from experts in the area and from interested public groups I think that's an important Benchmark so that a lot of the issues can be resolved pre second stage uh before the legislation is published in a comprehensive way in draft stage so we're absolutely committed to the whist La legislation and that will happen in respect of the registration of lobbyists um you're aware also of a a program for government commitment there and we intend to publish legislation sometime next year in that area um we've already published a very substantial document in July there was a full seminar where International experts in the area of of of of of U legislation of lobbyists uh were brought to Ireland for very thorough discussion there and we're now considering the outcome of that seminar and the proposals will go to the committee so if there is any view that we are in any way foot dragging our way on these two issues I want to reassure this audience and from International that that is not the case

[12:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=750s) and we remain absolutely committed uh to the legislation in both cases being en acted and Rec is last Tuesday evening the utsman amendment bill was passed by the do securing the most a significant extension in the ombudsman's remit since the office was first established over 30 years ago and the the government welcome the fact that the extension of the utsman remit to 140 public bodies was welcomed by the AL earlier today so it's it's an example of the progress the incremental progress we're making but of course we accept much more needs to be done and we're determined to achieve that the the Transparency International report reviews the rebalancing of the relationship between the houses of the eruptus and the executive and refers to the public uncertainty and unease suring the wording of the proposed referendum held just over a year ago on the houses of the eruptus whether they could hold inquiries or not the establishment of a fully effective system of arus inquiries would play a major role in addressing current accountability gaps and also in strengthening the role of the houses of the uus Visa the executive the minister for public expenditure reform has therefore H prioritized the development of a detailed legal framework for arus inquiries consistent with the strict constitutional parameters laid down by the Supreme Court of the abara case and the minister expects to sub submit these proposals shortly for the statutary framework to government uh so that the legislation could be approved I want to be very honest about this this was not our finest star this referendum just about a year ago um not enough time went into it and um I think it has a necessary wakeup call in government that if you are trying to amend the Constitution in whatever form it is crucial that a lead up period of time and a thir public debate occurs I have to say I'm fully committed to changing the law in this area I think it's absolutely a dire situation quite bluntly uh that the araus does not have within its remit the ability to make significant inquiries and findings of fact and I think also it hampers um the task of the uus in holding the executive to account I have been 15 years in politics a year and a half in government and uh I have great sympathy I have to

[15:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=900s) say with with opposition uh because we live in one of the most centralized Societies in Western Europe H in terms of parliamentary accountability and it seems to me that if we are going to rebalance that um fundamental function between the executive and Parliament it is an absolute essential ingredient that inquiries of the type that we proposed last year should be allowed and should be permitted under the Constitution that would require another referendum and obviously that is a matter for government to determine but as a first in that regard the minister will be bringing forward proposal shortly on draft legislation to improve the existing constitutional interpretation that's there following AB abila if I might make some coms on public procurement because it's an issue that I have direct responsibility for I know the 2009 country study identified public procurement is one of the weak links in National efforts to minimize the risk of corruption it highlighted the the risk of significant abuse and waste and recommended greater centralized coordination of procurement policy as well as reporting and mentoring of public procurement to mitigate these risks if view of my own H responsibility is as minister with responsibility for for public procurement and uh obviously have a keen interest in this area and uh I fully agree um with the comments made in the report and the comments made in 2009 and I think the world that we are going into in terms of procurement is exactly the space that was outlined in the 2009 report fewer procurers more centralized procurement people involved in procurement not as a hobby or as kadon people involving procurement is a full-time career me much more Frameworks uh and much more accountability in terms of the decision-making process H we are still spending as a country on goods and services this year n billion Euro seven of the N billion is addressable by way of Frameworks and by way of centralized procurements and we've got to take those decisions out of the local and more into the center because that's where you can exact the savings and that's where you can ensure that the standard of procurement is on the kind of exacting standard that would apply in other uh countries so not only is this good for the country in terms of savings and efficiencies it's also good in saying that the standard of public procurement will move to a model uh which is more

[17:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=1050s) centralized more focused and much more um requirement much much more requiring on on on local bodies and uh public State authorities so we very much welcome the key aspects of the report 9 and the reports that have been made since then obviously an important discussion point of today's seminar relates to the need to secure substantially greater accountability is captured in the title for the panel discussion in the seminar and ending impunity how do we call people to account alongside public procurement reform as well as shared services and property portfolio management another major aspect of my responsibility is the area of public uh service reform relating to government level performance measurement in strengthening accountability now the program for government contains a number of significant commitments designed to enhance public sector accountability the range and diversity of specific commitments is a good illustration of the size and complexity of the accountability agenda including issues such as substantially more performance measurement a much greater focus on outputs and outcomes uh more effective leadership H strategy development and change management in essence the government's approach reflected in the program for government is an accountability system in which public officials are held more directly and individually responsible for their performance this is likely to lead to a substantial strengthening in the performance of the public service overall this year we'll see the introduction of performance budgeting for almost all government departments and and offices alongside the spending allocations performance indicators both outputs and and um outcomes are set out clearly for all to see it's important that we focus on performance and results in other words not just how much we spending but what exactly we're achieving with the money we rais and can I give you a concrete example of this last week I was before an arus committee where I set out in my own Department the uh reductions in expenditure proposed for 2013 and how we're proposing to exact that across the subet and I had a very blunt conversation with colleagues in the europ this committee asking them to set out what will they do differently what cuts will they make how do they approve to the kind of reductions I was making that's an example of the kind of Engagement in parliamentary committees

[20:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=1200s) that we need to see where they have much more power and control in defining uh expenditure items and defining what we spend on on the kind of efficiency we obtain I'll shortly H also publish a new website H called Ireland stat and this site will allow for a far richer and deeper level of information to be presented than is possible in printed form now it's going out the pilot scheme first involving four departments that pilot will come to an end of this year and then we will roll out all of the information on Ireland stat of the new website um next year and that really puts out into the public domain all of the information that we have in terms of seeing how our system performs against other systems and the key indications that are there H during 2007 the danger signs for Ireland were flashing orange politicians and others in position ises of authority remained in denial in 2008 irand suffered a massive heart attack when by the end of 2010 it was put into intensive care and no let no one be in any doubt regarding the present situation arland's hand is still very much in the dog's mouth carefully this government is bringing the country to a safer place and I'm confident about the future I believe that hard work persistence and determination will return uh this government and the country head to a sustainable path of economic growth but there's no going back we must learn from some of the hard lessons from our failures and the failures of institutional organizations in this country we must as a society and Community take stop of the range of issues highlighted in the report to refine and deepen further our understanding of the reforms which are essential H to restoring Ireland's International reputation we must build a new system of public governance with strong enduring and informed H and is informed by the strong ethical values that underpin it and this must underpin effective and robust checks and balances uh which will be a break against uh corrosive decision making that unfortunately H was a feature of the past can I conclude on the following point we're living in a time of very rapid change the change is impacting on ities and political systems across the world the principles of evolution also

[22:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=1350s) teach us that societies which adapt and respond to change are societies which survive and prosper withdrawing into some kind of Perpetual TI and O is no longer an option through our own efforts we have the capacity to bend the Arc of history in AR's favor we should never be afraid to take up the challenge that the future always presents to each generation as far as the government is concerned lates and gentlemen the addendum report that's been published today will inform and help our work in all of the areas that we've outlined in the program for government and it is right and proper that an organization like Transparency International is always uh making sure that government holds to its commitments and holds to its program for government commitments specifically it is a good thing that this organization uh is rightly questioning where we stand on all these issues and in so far as we need that uh very questioning attitude one of the one things we've learned from all of the reports done in the financial crisis in this country is the Dreadful outcome of group think and uh I have no doubt that that will never happen as long as an organization like Transparency International and the Irish chapter of Transparency International is here to make sure that we're held to account thank you very much Min thank you uh for some very kind words found cter quite refreshing not was phally taking notes there there much food for for thought I'm going to hand you over now to nula um nula how your Le researcher this report who will uh talk you through some of the the highlights of the U of the uh hello everyone um I think it's very heartening that the minister um enforcing appear to just left the room underly the government's commitment to

[25:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=1500s) to the reforms and seem to appreciate the the urgency of of some of the reforms that we've been advocating for years um and and of course as he said it's a Pity to to waste a good crisis what what we're hoping with proposing what what we propose in in this research and the work that we do is to move Beyond a crisis de approach to reform to get to a system where we build um our public institutions with the necessary safe guards and checks and balances that were no longer just um chasing crises that we actually proactively planning and Corruption prevention is is a key part of that and unfortunately the minister um has departed before I got the opportunity to say that too now I'm going to run through the findings uh of the research I just put the agenda up just to remind you um what's going to what's going to follow we're going to have two panel discussions with our with our experts on on governance and anti-corruption um on E on either side of the coffee break after I present the key findings and recommendations from the report we'll have we'll have a chance for some um questions then John and I are happy to to answer but we're we're really Keen to to keep to the time schedule and you'll have a chance after the panel discussions to to put questions to as well so the report uh with its not so not so headline grabbing titled National integrity syst systems um country study addendum what is a national Integrity system and what is a national Integrity system study so it's it's a cross disciplinar disciplinary analysis of the key governance institutions in the state it's an attempt to sort it's like an Integrity health check a holistic analysis of safeguards within the State against poor governance and abuse of power the concept in the methodology has been evolving since the 1980s um by by Transparency International and thus far about 120 of these National Integrity systems have been conducted throughout the world and this research uh is accompanied by 20 other National Integrity system studies carried out in uh other European States and it's all funded by the European commission and I'll give you some talk to some details about the general findings as I go on so the integrity system is it's about horizontal accountability where each

[27:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=1650s) player in the State uh is both a watcher and is watched and we we devised unfortunately what is a greek temple it's probably uh the only kind of Temple was available um to to illustrate what we what we view as a nation's Integrity so you have um States institutions um serving as the the pillars which which maintain the roof which is the nation's integrity and it's butus by public support and society's values so if you find a public that is that is apathetic or or not W watchful the Integrity system will will not be so strong the balls on the top of this uh Temple represent the outcomes of a system that has Integrity sustainable development rule of law and quality of life because as we've seen repeatedly in our own history um corruption is a very corrosive uh phenomenon and it undermines the rule of law and democracy and as we're paying as we know now with quality of life this is what how Transparency International defines uh corruption abuse of in trusted power for private gain but we in in the study we talk about three typologies of corruption and I'd like to just run through those briefly Petty corruption in the form of bribes to low-level officials is is something that Ireland doesn't suffer from uh in in the most recent survey by Transparency International the global corruption barometer only 4% of Irish respondents said that they had paid a bribe in the previous year so that puts Ireland in the tier of countries least affected by Petty corruption such as bribery of low-level public officials now when it comes to Grand corruption successive tribunal St reports in Ireland have shown that we have almost systemic levels have had almost systemic levels of ground corruption in politics in business in government and we defined Grand corruption as acts committed at the high level of government that distort policymaking and Central function of the state um and then finally a term that is uh that is that we use in the in the study and it's it's an evolving concept this is concept that John touched upon of legal corruption um Recent research has shown that Ireland is perceived as having quite high levels of of legal

[30:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=1800s) corruption which takes many forms it includes cronyism patronage patronage and what's known as state capture when powerful interest groups um take hold of State policy and turn it away from the the public good of common interest towards to serve their own interests uh people often perceive that it's only traditional forms of corruption that actually have an impact on economic development um but but increasingly I think the world is starting to realize that these legal forms of corruption can also lead to um severe fiscal problems in developed report it's a stock take of progress from the 2009 study which was which was our sort of baseline or scoping exercise on Integrity the Ireland's Integrity system a lot has happened since then we've had the report rep the final reports of the Mah and morard tribunals Ireland has lost its economic sovereignty a new Administration has taken power with a program for government pledging many radical reform in many areas the 2009 study made several key findings um it concluded that despite the fact that um Ireland has quite a centralized uh governance that its National Integrity system is strong by International standard s however these are these are the key weaknesses that were identified in the 2009 study and um the chickens have come home to roast because many of the gaps that we identified in 2009 uh are gaps which led to the led to the banking crisis including the light touch principles based approach to financial regulation including the lack of transparency and political funding and lobbying including insufficient controls to ensure that that sectoral interests do not have undue influence over policy making and and as we mentioned then the crisis led to crisis Le approach to fighting corruption is one that we're keen to turn away from and to to have an approach to fighting corruption that that emphasizes prevention so the 2009 study made 39 recommendations and these are the key ones we've been speaking about them this morning

[32:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=1950s) in our in our review of that analysis as part of this uh addendum we identified progress in 20 of the 20 of the 39 recommendations not full progress in any unfortunately but partial progress and we Define that as reforms that are based on program for government pledges bills laws and um and other proposals so the progress that we can report since 2009 ARS has ratified the United Nations convention against corruption and that's a really important blueprint for both future efforts by the state to fight corruption but also H it gives a framework to allow Civil Society to play a part in promoting and monitoring the convention and we're we're very keen that Transparency International plays plays a significant role in that white collar crime measures have been introduced since 2009 many were introduced to uh help with law enforcement officials as they tried to investigate the Fallout from the Anglo Irish Bank to bacle so we had we had new powers given to the office of director of corporate enforcement and the guard of Bureau of fraud investigation to to try and oblige reluctant witnesses to uh to cooperate with the investigations there's been some reform of party political funding this year uh which will see parties um obliged to publ publish annually audited accounts for the first time that's a long overdue measure and it's one that we welcome we hope it will introduce more transparency for um citizens knowing how political parties where they get their money from and uh and how they spend it but we we we feel that there are other reforms necessary in that field now finally we see the discredited light touch of approach to regulation of the banks has been replaced with what's called a risk-based approach the central bank has been reformed Financial regulator is now part of the Central Bank and um and they've been given many more enforcement Powers but as the moriarity tribunal remarked in in its final report last year there's a real need to develop a culture in which forthright Val for forthright regulation is actually valued and that remains an ongoing challenge so turning to the

[35:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=2100s) recommendations in this report the recommendations that we make in this report are supplementary to the to the recommendations that we made in 2009 I just want to highlight a few of them for you I think there's in total 13 local government is still is still a corruption black spot and we are calling for stronger stronger measures stronger safeguards at local level including transparency measures more emphasis on prevention through training and Education and Research at local government level and local governments um local authorities are obliged to publish fraud and Corruption um fraud and Corruption alert and contingency plans we would like these to become meaningful plans that are subject to open scrutiny and reviewing on a on a on a on a yearly basis and we would like to see them published online we have the right to know what effort local authorities are are making to reform themselves ma the Mah tribunal made many recommendations in this regard and and we we would support those excuse me including giving the standards public office commission um an oversight role when it comes to enforcement of conflict of interest measures at local government [Music] level we're also we're also advocating that the government considers measures to encourage self-reporting of corruption and white color offenses these could include deferred prosecution agreements corruption immunity programs um and other measures that would that would help that would help um get past the fact that corruption is clearly a conspirator conspiratorial crime and therefore we need measures to try and try and break open the the black box of his corruption we would like to see uh an increase in awareness Wess and awareness raising and education and we mean that at both in both sort of formal educational sense and and the general public awareness sense as the minister mentioned levels of trust in political parties in the state have have plummeted we need to rebuild that and by doing in order to do that we need to we need more accountability and transparency in public life people need to know what is right and what's wrong in order to report it now finally disclosures of interest for public

[37:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=2250s) officials aimed at preventing conflicts of interest we think these are these are not not wide enough and um comprehensive enough and the Mahan tribunal um has has made many recommendations in this area which we would also endorse now as I mentioned or as has as has been mentioned this research is funded by the European commission and there are there are 24 other Europe European countries that have produced n studies and that's been a really valuable exercise for us it has allowed us to identify common uh strengths and weaknesses in in the 25 countries that are in this cluster of research the regional report which um highlighted some of the some of the issues emerging from the 25 country studies is available at the back of the room so how do EU countes Stack Up generally the Watchdog institutions form best by that we mean audit institutions Ombudsman electoral management bodies Judicial Systems are strong um and like in Ireland in many other countries there's a much bleer pictures of picture of governments law enforcement Civil Society political parties in particular now the few eyebr will be raised over the report's findings that Europe's Integrity leaders tend to be countries like Denmark Norway Sweden they all are very well entrench entrenched transparency and accountability mechanisms including very active and well resourced and respected Watchdog institutions for example in Sweden Freedom of Information laws date back to 1766 and its husman has existed since 1809 and it is also no surprise to find that g Greece Italy and Portugal and Spain emerged as as weak in terms of their integrity systems in the European research they've all been found to have serious deficits in their anti-corruption Frameworks and you can read about that in the newspapers on a daily basis so just finally before I turn over to the uh to the first panel discussion I just want to end with some of the findings from the final reports of the uh the Mah tribunal and the the 2006 report of moriarity Mah found that corruption was emic systemic in Irish political life in the decade up to the mid

[40:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=2400s) 1990s and that those involved in it operate with a sense of impunity and invincibility morard for his part spoke about this dismal period in the interface between politics and business Mah the Mah report describes political corruption as a deeply corrosive and destructive force and it's often it's often compared to uh a disease like cancer now what maybe a slightly overused metaphor but it's apt it's apt because of the corrosive nature of it but it's also apt because corruption mutates theas dezes it finds new new Pathways to exploit New Opportunities and new incentives so a question that I have for the for the for the panelists and the in the discussions to follow is what corruption risks are we looking at in 2012 has it mutated has it changed and what can we do to stop it at this stage what new SA guards do we need and I'll leave that open to for the experts to to ponder on as the uh as the debate start so thanks for listening we have we have five minutes for questions if you'd like to ask John myself any questions on the report itself and then after that we're going to I'm going to introduce Sam Smith and he'll introduce the panelists and we'll kick off with the first panel session so who is the first s was a question the idea of people's self reporting Sal for coruption is that realistic uh on for that's that's related to companies that that might self-report yeah um the law the law here has recently been changed and it obliges um it obliges anyone who's who knows a white collar crime to report it so if you have a situation for example where a whistleblower within a company goes his boss and say is you know there's there's this irregular practice going on the the company then is obliged in law to report that and so they're incriminating themselves so deferred Pro prosecution agreement is is is a is a mechanism that's used in the United States and it's it's also going to be introduced in the UK where the company can fess up go to the to go to the law enforcement authorities and say we believe there's wrongdoing in our business and the prosecutor will defer Char charges while they while they investigate it so so one yeah so just going to just point out as well that the the competition Authority

[42:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsoIlMGeUw&t=2550s) already runs a cartel immunity program and that program was was um laid down under EU directors around the competition and markets abuse and that encourages people to come forward if they have information if they're part of a cartel uh and be afforded some degree of immunity by by the the dppp if they fully cooperate with an investigation so there is precedence here as well all right well look um we shall we shall move on to the uh to the panel discussion and I'm going to introduce Sam Smith who needs very little introduction he's a household name at this stage Sam's an investigative journalist and broadcaster he's very well known for his extensive coverage of the M tribunal he's worked for sorry marar tribunal excuse me one tends to confuse them he's worked for the Sunday independent and the Daily Independent is both a journalist and colonist and until recently he presented the popular um radio radio show the Sunday the Sunday supplement on Today FM he's also the author of a a best-selling book thanks a million big fella H which is about Charles hoi Ben dun and Michael lry if I'm not mistaken so I'm gon to ask the Sam and the other panelists to to come up and Sam will introduce um the panel participants for you for our first panel corruption proofing how do we safeguard against future crises okay I think we're really ready to go as supp one of the reasons why I'm here today is that one I really do admire the work that's done by Transparency International but I'm also involved with um Consortium of investigative journalists which is an international organization which is associated with the Center for Public Integrity in Washington which is uh uh they bring out every American election called the setting of President which has a huge International reputation and besides that I think when

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Continues in https://guptaoption.com/texts/396-2.md (part 2 of 3).
End of [396] Transparency International launch event, Dublin, part 1 of 3. Its connections are at the top of this file; the map is https://guptaoption.com/llms.txt.