Multinational Monitor

MAY/JUNE 2006
VOL 27 No. 3

FEATURES:

Combating the Culture of Corruption. Or Not.
by Charlie Cray

Corruption Roll Call: The Most Corrupt Members of Congreess
by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Caught in Jack's Web: The Abramoff Associates' File
by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Oil and Violence in Sudan: Drilling, Poverty and Death in Upper Nile State
by Egbert Wesselink and Evelien Weller

INTERVIEWS:

Hostile Takeover: The Corruption of Politics in the United States
An Interview with David Sirota

Exporting Corruption: How Rich Country Export Credit Agencies Facilitate Corruption in the Global South
An Interview with The Corner House

Searching for Transparency: Corruption and the Global Economy
An Interview with David Nussbaum

DEPARTMENTS:

Behind the Lines

Editorial
Structural Corruption and Reform

The Front
Human Trafficking in Jordan -- Third World Brain Drain

The Lawrence Summers Memorial Award

Book Notes
The rise and Fall of the Republican Machine -- The Life of Chinese Peasants -- Labor, Environment, and the Global Electronics Industry

Names In the News

Resources

Combating the Culture of Corruption. Or Not.

by Charlie Cray

The Culture of Curruption

Tom DeLay finally resigned, Jack Abramoff will soon be doing time, and more indictments are being filed against an ever-growing list of K Street fixers, Members of Congress and corrupt executive branch employees, fueling public perception that Washington’s “culture of corruption” is out of control. Yet all the skeletons and scandals have failed to galvanize enough public outrage to force Congress to pass even modest ethics and lobby reform legislation. MORE >>

Corruption Roll Call: The Most Corrupt Members of Congress

by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Connected to the Abramoff scandal and under indictment for improper use of corporate funds in a scheme to cement Republican control over Congress, the powerful House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay resigned from office in April.

But the departed DeLay is not the only Member of Congress whose behavior merits scrutiny. There are a significant number of other members who have engaged in similarly egregious conduct, some in connection with Abramoff, some in other contexts.

Here are profiles of some of the most unethical activities by Members of Congress, from both parties. The list is by no means complete, but it does provide a distressing overview of the moral morass in Congress. MORE >>

Oil and Violence in Sudan Drilling, Poverty and Death in Upper Nile State

by Egbert Wesselink and Evelien Weller

The discovery of oil in a developing country can be a blessing or a curse. In Sudan’s case, oil exploration and development has helped fuel vicious warfare.

The 2005 Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which brokered an end to fighting between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), offers a framework to depart from that brutal legacy, but so far its promise has not been realized.

Sudan’s largest oil field is located in Western Upper Nile, southeast of the capital, Khartoum. Most of the international focus on the intersection of oil and violence in Sudan has been directed towards this area. But oil development is now proceeding rapidly in another oil field east of there, in the Melut Basin in Upper Nile State, with a disturbingly similar story line. MORE >>

Searching for Transparency: Corruption and the Global Economy

An interview with David Nussbaum

David Nussbaum is the chief executive of Transparency International (“TI”), based at the International Secretariat in Berlin. TI is the leading global anti-corruption organization, with national chapters in about 100 countries. Nussbaum is also a non-executive director of Shared Interest and was previously the chair of Traidcraft plc. Prior to joining TI, Nussbaum was a director of Oxfam, including six months on secondment in charge of Oxfam’s program in India. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nussbaum worked in venture capital with 3i plc, and then as finance director of a quoted European packaging group. MORE >>

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