2013.1.7 Press Advisory No. 1
The First Global Index on Government Defence Corruption to be Launched in Taiwan
Transparency International-Taiwan (TI-Taiwan) is pleased to announce that it will host an international press conference to publish the first global index on government defence corruption on January 29, 2013 in Taipei, Taiwan.
The Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index is the first of its kind, and measures levels of corruption risk in defence establishments in 82 countries worldwide. Transparency International UK’s Defence and Security Programme (TI-DSP) will be launching the Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index in collaboration with TI Taiwan and TI National Chapters worldwide.
TI-DSP and TI-Taiwan will jointly launch the Index to a regional audience on January 29th, with a 10 a.m. press conference to discuss results. Representatives from neighbouring TI national chapters, including Indonesia Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea will attend the press conference to meet the press. Two defence corruption and index specialists from London (TI-DSP) and two representatives from the TI Secretariat in Berlin will attend the press conference to answer questions and take individual interviews. All news media, especially from these neighbouring countries, are welcome to attend this event.
Tuesday, January 29th: 10.00: Press conference venue at Conference Room 4F, National Taiwan University Alumni House (No. 2-1, Section 1, Jinan Road, Taipei City) to launch the Index. This news event will last an hour (in English) and include a presentation by TI-DSP on the Index findings worldwide and the region, followed by Q&A for journalists. For media interview requests, please contact TI-TAIWAN,+886-2-2236-2204,Email :tict@tict.org.tw
Background
The Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index: The Index is the first of its kind, and measures corruption risk in defence establishments in 82 countries worldwide. It is based around a comprehensive questionnaire of 77 questions, each with ‘model’ answers. The aim of the Index is to provide defence officials with practical guidance on how to build integrity and reduce corruption risk in their establishments, and to provide civil society with a tool to monitor reform progress.
The Index ranks each country in bands from A to F, A reflecting very low defence corruption risk and F reflecting a critically high level of risk. The results are also disaggregated into five key risk areas: Political, Financial, Operations, Personnel, and Procurement Risk. The full analysis for each country will also be published online at www.defenceindex.org Further information is available on the TI Defence and Security Programme website: www.ti-defence.org/our-work/diagnosing-corruption-risks/gov-index
The TI Defence and Security Programme: TI-DSP has worked in this sector since 2004. TI-DSP’s approach is to seek collaborative engagement with defence and security establishments, supporting reform-minded individuals and activities that build integrity within these establishments. TI-DSP provides training and guidance for defence leadership on the subject of countering corruption. The team consists of eleven full time staff plus several senior recently-retired experts, all part-time, from the military, MOD, security forces and similar. The team has an active research programme, which underlies the practical tools we provide and advocacy we do ourselves and with TI national chapters. Their experience is that a large number of defence establishments are eager to engage on practical ways to limit corruption risk in defence, and we have now worked with many such ministries.
TI-Taiwan, a non-government organization founded since 2002, has committed to advocate a better and cleaner defence system within the government of Taiwan. In addition to hosting the press conference for the first global government defence anti-corruption index, TI-Taiwan also actively engages in research and policy recommendations on key issues such as local-government corruption measurement, water governance, and business ethics. TI-Taiwan has built friendly partnerships on anti-corruption movement with the Ministry of National Defence and the Agency against Corruption, a newly established anti-corruption body in Taiwanese government. The official website for TI-Taiwan http://www.tict.org.tw/front/bin/home.phtml