Jennifer Quaid, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
A jury is about to decide the fate of a senior SNC-Lavalin executive accused of corruption and fraud. Meanwhile, Canada’s remediation agreement process is still sorely lacking.
This book is a booster to morale. It tells South Africans they can enjoy the impressive economic growth they once achieved.
Special counsel Robert Mueller reached no definitive conclusion about whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice in firing FBI Director James Comey or attacking his own investigation.
Reuters/Hyungwon Kang, AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Reuters/Jonathan Ernst, Twitter
Legally, a person can obstruct justice even if he committed no other crime – though it is harder to prove. It all depends on the intent behind pressuring investigators, say, or firing an FBI director.
The Padma Bridge Project in Bangladesh is seen in this February 2018 photograph. SNC-Lavalin was accused of bribing officials in the construction of the bridge, though charges were later dropped.
Md Shaifuzzaman Ayon
Promoting Canadian jobs is part of any government’s political mandate, but so too is the responsibility of ensuring that Canadian businesses are not supporting or condoning corruption abroad.
It could be easy to scoff at Canadian laws that might have allowed SNC-Lavalin to avoid prosecution for bribery and fraud. But they’re working exactly as they should.
(Shutterstock)
Bribery in Uganda’s health care system is on a downward trend but researchers fear that it is not sustainable.
Sir John A. Macdonald was not only Canada’s first prime minister, he was the first justice minister and attorney general. Jody Wilson-Raybould has suggested the two roles should be split.
National Archives of Canada/THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Sir John A. Macdonald fused the jobs of justice minister and attorney general as Canada’s first prime minister. So is he partly to blame for the SNC-Lavalin controversy?
Former SNC-Lavalin vice-president Stephane Roy leaves a Quebec courtroom after fraud and bribery charges against him were thrown out due to trial delays. Roy had been charged with bribing a foreign public official in connection with the company’s dealings with Libya.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
Until recently, paying a bribe or kickback to secure a contract abroad was seen as the cost of doing business in a foreign land. The SNC-Lavalin case has underscored the need to rethink the approach.
In a return to realism, geopolitical headwinds challenge the US-led campaign against international corporate corruption.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, meets with Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2015. In the 2018 Transparency International report, Venezuela ranks 168 and Russia ranks 138. The least-corrupt country in the world is Denmark, followed by strong democracies such as New Zealand, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.
kremlin.ru
The rankings in Transparency International’s 2018 index shows that highly democratic countries tend to have low levels of corruption. Is there something inherent in corruption that can kill democracy?
Angelo Agrizzi, the former chief operating officer of private security firm, at a South African commission of inquiry into corruption.
Sunday Times/Alan Skuy
A legal scholar looks at the new and narrowed definition of bribery by the US Supreme Court. In the future, will politicians doing favors for donors and friends ever be prosecuted for corruption?
Corruption pollutes the African business environment.
Shutterstock
Public sector corruption is a major challenge to doing business in Africa and players are mostly ill-equipped to deal with it. Business schools can teach the skills to tackle it.
Murdered investigative journalist Daphne Carauna Galizia, outside the Libyan embassy in Valletta, Malta.
Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been killed in Malta – but we must accept that corruption is a problem for all of Europe.
While doing business in Angola with the state-owned Sonangol oil company, Halliburton engaged in practices that resulted in a settlement of 29.2 million US dollars with the SEC.
GuardiaoAngola/Twitter
Two cases remind us of the international presence of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the importance of designing, adopting and enforcing effective anti-corruption policies.