The Challenges of Political Corruption in Australia, the Proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission Bill (2020) and the Application of the APUNCAC

Political corruption affects each nation-state differently, but the outcomes are nominally the same: a deficit of public trust, weakened government institutions and undermined political systems. This article analyzes issues of political corruption in Australia by framing them within a national integrity ecosystem (NIE) and addressing them against the proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) 2020 bill. It also discusses prevalent ‘grey’ areas of Australian politically-corrupt behavior where they interact with the private sector: the revolving door, political donations, and lobbying; and the state of Australia’s implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. This article argues for their inclusion within the mandated scope of the proposed CIC. There is a need for strong legislation, both domestic and international, to fight corruption. This article then discusses the application of the provisions of the draft Anticorruption Protocol to the UN Convention Against Corruption (APUNCAC) that may apply with respect to these ‘grey’ issues, and how an International Anti-Corruption Court may provide another institutional model for Australia to follow. Finally, this article links these proposals to the 2021 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Corruption and the 9th Conference of States Parties on the UNCAC (COSP9). These events illustrate multilateral momentum and progress on anti-corruption. As a country that has historically supported the UN multilateral framework and its institutions, this article recommends a proactive approach for Australia so that the passing of a strong domestic anticorruption initiative will contribute to the adoption, and eventual ratification, of the APUNCAC.

La relación entre la auditoría, la corrupción política y la transparencia informativa: un análisis comparativo de las Comunidades Autónomas españolas

Nowadays, public administrations are experiencing a trend towards greater control and supervision as a result of citizen demands and the financial situation of recent years. Specifically, the Spanish Autonomous Communities have suffered greatly from the effects of the economic crisis of 2008 and they have detected a large number of political corruption processes, which has focused the attention of experts. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to evaluate the effect that the level of implementation of external auditing and the degree of information transparency have on political corruption in the Spanish Autonomous Public Administration. To do this, firstly, a review of the current level of implementation of external auditing in the Autonomous Communities, its transparency level and the degree of political corruption at the regional level is carried out. Secondly, an exploratory study consisting of a bivariate analysis and a regression model is performed. The results of the bivariate analysis show that there is a significant relationship between the level of external audit implementation and transparency. However, the regression model indicates that neither transparency nor auditing has a significant influence on corruption, except when we analyze partial audit and transparency indexes since the 2010 PGCP turns out to have a significant effect regarding corruption cases. En la actualidad, las administraciones públicas están experimentando una tendencia hacia un mayor control y supervisión como consecuencia de las demandas ciudadanas y la situación financiera de los últimos años. Concretamente, las Comunidades Autónomas españolas han sufrido en gran medida los efectos de la crisis económica del año 2008 y en ellas se ha detectado un gran número de procesos de corrupción política, lo que ha centrado la atención de los expertos en su estudio. Por ello, el objetivo principal del presente trabajo consiste en evaluar el efecto que el nivel de implantación de la auditoría externa y el grado de transparencia informativa tienen sobre la corrupción política en la Administración Pública Autonómica española. Para ello, se realiza en primer lugar, una revisión del panorama actual del nivel de implantación de la auditoría externa en las Comunidades Autónomas, de su transparencia informativa y del nivel de corrupción política a nivel regional. En segundo lugar, se lleva a cabo un estudio exploratorio consistente en un análisis bivariante y un modelo de regresión. Los resultados del análisis bivariante muestran que existe una relación significativa entre el nivel de implantación de auditoría externa y transparencia. No obstante, el modelo de regresión nos indica que ni transparencia ni auditoría influyen significativamente en la corrupción, salvo cuando analizamos índices parciales de auditoría y transparencia ya que la adaptación al PGCP 2010 resulta tener un efecto significativo respecto a los casos de corrupción.

Public Funding of Political Parties and Rada Members in Post-Electoral Period

This study addresses the issue of the efficiency of public funding mechanisms. Using the Ukrainian experience as an example, the article covers recently introduced amendments and their effect on the overall efficiency of public funding. Further, the article analyzes possible ways for mitigating existing shortcomings of public funding mechanisms and outlines suggested solutions. Complemented with semi-structured interviews with current Members of Rada, the article strives to provide insights and suggestions to issues of political independence, political corruption, accountability, and transparency.

Interdisciplinary, International Exploration to Strengthen Creativity, Giftedness and Leadership

Creativity, giftedness, and leadership are complex, important phenomena, especially in the threatening turbulence of 21st-century conditions; consequently, there is an increasing need to understand how to strengthen them. We can learn much about these phenomena from within the borders of specialized disciplines; however, they are too complex and multifaceted to fit within the walls of disciplinary silos. Interdisciplinary explorations can reveal theories and research findings that expand our knowledge bases about creativity, giftedness, and leadership. This analysis includes the rationale for engaging in interdisciplinary investigations for these purposes. It includes examples of the ways in which interdisciplinary thinking invigorates creativity and cognitive diversity; illuminates the benefits of visual–spatial gifts that strengthen the development of important talents in gifted students who can go on to become creative leaders; and shows how human rights can be strengthened by constraining economic and political corruption. It also describes the benefits of using interdisciplinary navigation through different levels of analysis, each of which includes a number of academic disciplines.

The Risks of Using Cryptocurrency in Political Financing And The Methods for its Prevention

Regulating and monitoring political finances is an important factor in ensuring a fair and equitable electoral environment, but there are frequent cases of illegal finances, and in the modern world there is a tendency to use digital currencies, which are slowly entering political parties and making political finances monitoring impossible. The Relevant political finance regulations set standards for access to information, which make it possible to process the required information, to monitor it and achieve the transparency of information. Moreover, the Regulation and transparency of funding political processes are important to limit the means of gaining a power through anonymous and illegal sources. The appropriate measures of prevention and coercion serve this purpose in order to make political finances transparent through effective monitoring. Recently, a number of countries have faced the threat of receiving funding from the closed parties and the use of crypto currencies by political parties, and many have begun to think about introducing certain regulations to protect policies from digital currencies. Keywords: political party, political financing, political corruption, cryptocurrency, bitcoin.

A regional head election’s political corruption and new styles of clientelism

Intense competition in the regional head election (Pilkada) has implications for the increasing costs that candidates have to prepare to win the competition. The high cost in the regional head election makes many regional heads, when elected, commit political corruption and practices that are more adapted to the situation, namely the new styles of clientelism. This study aims to determine the shift in the relationship between political corruption and clientelism and to see new forms of clientelism. The approach used in this research was a literature study. Documents were selected using an application from the Publish or Perish database. The results of this study indicate that first, the power of money in politics in Indonesia creates a significant dependence on economic power, which influences a high level of political corruption. Second, there are two new styles of clientelism, including buying and selling votes and patronage in the bureaucracy. This paper concludes that the various modes of political corruption and new styles of clientelism that occur underline political vulnerabilities at the local level due to the broad elaboration of regional authority discretion.