Search Page

The idea of creating an Anti-corruption academy comes from a civil association named GERB. The academy would apply international experience and attract foreign experts to deliver lectures. Tightening the fight against corruption practices, particularly on high echelons, has been among the key critiques of the European Commission to Bulgaria.

A pilot program 'Fighting against corruption through schools' will teach students and parents to identify and act against dishonesty in their schools and the rest of society. Most civil servants in Cameroon, including teachers, earn low salaries and rely on bribes to feed their families.

The Canadian value most under threat is freedom from corruption, claims the industry sector. The 2005 Transparency International survey shows that Canada has slipped to 14th among countries perceived as free of corruption, down from its traditional top-10 placing.

A school administrative staff has been jailed for 8 months at Eastern Magistracy for accepting a $100,000 loan from a cleaning contractor for renewing service contracts of the school for longer terms without consent of the school. The defendant must pay $15,600 in restitution to the school.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been successfully running school feeding programmes around the world for years. But in Ghana an independent audit recently revealed that the programme is mired in corruption. By May 2008, 477,714 pupils in 987 schools accross Ghana were benefiting from the programme and according to the Local Government Ministry, with an average of a 40 percent increase in primary school enrolment since the programme was introduced. But an independent school feeding motoring report said that enrolment in 14 selected schools nationwide increased only by 21 per cent between the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 academic year.

Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) highlights the fatal link between poverty, failed institutions and graft. But other notable backsliders in the 2008 CPI indicate that the strength of oversight mechanisms is also at risk among the wealthiest. In low-income countries, rampant corruption jeopardizes the global fight against poverty, threatening to derail the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to TI's 2008 Global Corruption Report, unchecked levels of corruption would add US $50 billion (€35 billion) - or nearly half of annual global aid outlays – to the cost of achieving the MDG on water and sanitation.

Honduras invests large sums in education, but powerful teachers' unions and political appointments hinder reforms in a sector vulnerable to corruption and lacking of civil society monitoring. There are 50,000 teachers in the country; between 2,500 and 6,000 of them have pending issues about their posts (such as irregular paid leaves or unjustified absence while still on the payroll). For current decentralization plans to impact positively on education services, local auditing skills need to be improved, parents must be given a bigger role, and unions must adhere to codes of conduct.

The Ministry of National Education of Indonesia proposed a bill to further deregulate the Nation's universities. But the privatization of leading universities will lead, according to the Indonesia Corruption Watch, to the exclusion of the children from less well-off families. The high costs of university entrance and passage in the way have indeed tended to either reduce or eliminate students from the poorer provinces of Indonesia. Major corruption cases break out in Indonesia on a regular basis and there is strong evidence that higher university tuition fees increased corruption in the sector.

In 2002, the Liberian embassy's deputy chief of mission began his fraudulent transactions with American owners of St Regis diploma mill. They agreed to sell Liberian university accreditation to "St Regis University" for $2,250. They then decide to create two other diploma mills: Robertstown and James Monroe. By the end of 2003, Liberian officials under their sway included senior diplomats in at least two embassies, a minister of justice, a foreign minister, two successive directors of Liberia's National Commission for Higher Education, and a number of other diplomats and government officials, including several at the Ministry of Education. The United States Secret Service finally unveiled their embezzlement.

Teaching positions are for sale in Mexico, and have been for decades. Although seldom discussed, the practice—established by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) to reward party loyalists—is apparently widespread. The going price for a teaching position in a public primary school is reported to be between $5,000 and $12,000, depending on locale. Teachers who resign can either sell their positions or pass them on to their children. In at least some cases, local governments and the teachers' union supervise the buying and selling process. However, a recent reform effort—the "Alliance for Education Quality" (ACE)—signed by the government and the national teachers' union in May, would base new teacher appointments on merit, via an examination administered by an independent body. Not surprisingly, it has generated a vociferous response at the grass-roots level. Teachers have gone on strike in many states, marching on government offices, closing schools and blocking streets.