Africa
Tsvangirai pledges zero tolerance for corruption
The Zimbabwean, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says he will continue to expel corrupt officials from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Addressing a rally in Bulawayo, Tsvangirai, who is president of the MDC, said those councillors who refuse to step down after they are found guilty of corruption will no longer be MDC members.
We will fight corruption - Yengeni
Pretoria News, South Africa
Tony Yengeni, an official in South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), has said the party will be tough on corruption and that it is emulating the Chinese anti-corruption model used by the Communist Party to clamp down on tender graft. “China has an anti-corruption unit for every major state tender, from the beginning of the tender process to its end,” Yengeni explained.
Asia
In Indonesia, many eyes follow money for hajj
The New York Times, U.S.
Indonesian government officials and politicians have misused money deposited by Muslims waiting to go to Mecca to perform the hajj, according to government investigators and anti-corruption groups. Some 1.2 million Muslims are on a government waiting list to perform the pilgrimage and money deposited by them now totals nearly $2.4 billion.
Sime Darby manager charged with graft
The Malay Mail, Malaysia
A general manager of a subsidiary of the Malaysian multinational, Sime Darby Bhd, pleaded not guilty to one charge of corruption and another of breaching the Companies Act. Zamri Mohd Iderus of Subang Jaya was charged with accepting two cheques worth RM99,000 ($31,500) from Kamaludin Hassan as an inducement to reveal the bid estimates for an architectural sub-contract amounting to RM14 million ($4.45million) and for a copper/nickel piping sub-contract for Sime Darby Engineering Sdn Bhd.
North America
New Jersey Journal, U.S.
Peter Cammarano III, former mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for taking $25,000 in bribes from a federal informant in a massive corruption sting. Cammarano pleaded guilty to taking the money in exchange for his official help with a Hoboken development that Solomon Dwek, an FBI informant, said he was planning to build but never really existed, officials said.
Europe
Officials Taught to Counter Bribe Taking
The Moscow Times, Russia
Officials who are to work in anti-corruption departments will undergo special training, which will focus on curtailing the appearance of new bribe-takers, rather than finding and punishing existing ones. By the end of the year, about 500 officials are slated to go through a course in the Russian Academy of Civil Service to increase their qualifications for fighting corruption. This is being done in the framework of the national plan for countering corruption, said Mikhail Mizulin, first deputy director of the academy's higher school of management.
Latin America
Mexico: Cartels Pay Corrupt Cops $100 Million a Month
Latin American Herald Tribune, Venezuela
Mexican authorities said at a forum that drug-trafficking gangs pay around 1.27 billion pesos ($100 million) a month in bribes to municipal police officers nationwide. Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said that figure was calculated based on perceptions of municipal officers themselves and an analysis of a list of police recruited by the cartels that was found during a police operation.
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