KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Former state Sen. David Fowler is accused of breaking a state law that prohibits lobbyists from making direct campaign donations to legislative candidates.
Fowler is registered as a lobbyist for Family Action of Tennessee, an organization which promotes conservative issues.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports he is accused of giving $100 to Republican state Rep. Stacey Campfield, who represents Knoxville.
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Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Monday, 8 September 2008
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert तो be indicted in a string of corruption cases
Israel's police are uggesting that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted in a string of corruption cases.
An official document, सय्स the police are seeking to indict Olmert in matters that include receiving tens of thousands of dollars from a U.S. businessman and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad.
The suggestion would have only limited effect. Whether to indict Olmert is a decision the attorney general would make, and police recommendations to indict Israeli leaders have been turned down in the past.
As for the political effect, Olmert has already announced he would resign later this month because of the multiple corruption investigations.
Though he has been dogged by corruption charges through his long public career, Olmert has never been indicted and has denied all wrongdoing.
Alarming corruption level in Goa
PANAJI: Goa has an ‘alarming’ level of corruption, finds a study involving below poverty level families vis-�-vis their access to public services. The state rubs shoulders with Nagaland among smaller states and Union territories, and five other bigger states, including Bihar.
The joint study by Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS) and Transparency International India (TII) and released recently covered all 31 states and union territories and interviewed the poor in urban slums and rural areas.
The states were ranked into four levels - alarming, very high, high and moderate. Among the bigger states who share the ‘honours’ with Goa for the alarming level of corruption are Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.
Chief Secretary J P Singh declined to comment, saying, “I will have to see the report.” However, Ganesh Chodankar, general secretary, Goa Government Employees Association said the findings are accurate. “For any appointment in government service, one has to pay huge sums underhand,” he said.
“It is the political class which is responsible for the malaise,” he said.
In Goa, households of poor families in Panaji, Margao, Ponda and Sanguem were contacted for the survey on corruption in eleven public services, including power, water supply, as also need-based services like land records/registration, housing, and police.
As far as awareness about Right to Information Act and its use by BPL households is concerned, Goa figured at the bottom with only 1.2% of BPL families in the state aware about the potential of RTI as a tool to curb corruption.
The awareness in Bihar was marginally higher at 1.4%, Himachal Pradesh 2.9%, Haryana 2.9% while Andhra Pradesh topped with 13%.
The joint study by Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS) and Transparency International India (TII) and released recently covered all 31 states and union territories and interviewed the poor in urban slums and rural areas.
The states were ranked into four levels - alarming, very high, high and moderate. Among the bigger states who share the ‘honours’ with Goa for the alarming level of corruption are Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.
Chief Secretary J P Singh declined to comment, saying, “I will have to see the report.” However, Ganesh Chodankar, general secretary, Goa Government Employees Association said the findings are accurate. “For any appointment in government service, one has to pay huge sums underhand,” he said.
“It is the political class which is responsible for the malaise,” he said.
In Goa, households of poor families in Panaji, Margao, Ponda and Sanguem were contacted for the survey on corruption in eleven public services, including power, water supply, as also need-based services like land records/registration, housing, and police.
As far as awareness about Right to Information Act and its use by BPL households is concerned, Goa figured at the bottom with only 1.2% of BPL families in the state aware about the potential of RTI as a tool to curb corruption.
The awareness in Bihar was marginally higher at 1.4%, Himachal Pradesh 2.9%, Haryana 2.9% while Andhra Pradesh topped with 13%.
Seoul city councilmen have been indicted at once for receiving money from Seoul Metropolitan Council
A total of 28 Seoul city councilmen have been indicted at once for receiving money from Seoul Metropolitan Council Chairman Kim Gui-hwan during the 18th general election and the vote to choose the chairman of the city council. Four of the indicted councilmen have been charged with taking W2-W3 million (US$1=W1,121) for their help during the mid-April vote to choose the chairman, while the remaining 24 have allegedly took W600,000 to W1 million in early April, before the general election. There are 106 seats on the Seoul Metropolitan Council, so almost one-third of the councilmen have been indicted. This is unprecedented. The Seoul Metropolitan Council's image has taken a hard hit, and by-elections to fill vacant posts may be inevitable depending on the results of the trials.
All of the 28 indicted councilmen are from the ruling Grand National Party. The reason council chairman Kim bribed only GNP members was because there was no need to pay off members of other parties. Out of the 106 seats in the council, 100 are from the GNP. When a GNP councilman wants to become chairman, he only needs to bribe people in his party. This type of incident was probably not restricted to the election of the chairman. The Seoul Metropolitan Council has made several decisions that were hard for the public to accept, including allowing private crammers to operate at night, only to reverse them. There was little room if any for opposing views, since the lot of them belong to the same party.
This incident should be seen as the result of a monopoly in regional governments. A similar case is taking place in a ward council in Gwangju that prosecutors are investigating. Just like Seoul, Gwangju's city council is monopolized by a single party. A provincial council that cannot even keep itself in check cannot possibly keep a local government head in check.
Everybody will probably agree that corruption is the biggest problem facing our local governments. The reality is that customarily in our local governments, a political party is not a group that takes in public opinion, but the root of cryonyism and corruption. We must put limits on the system of nominations by the political parties in local elections and boost the number of proportional representation seats in provincial councils. Reforms of the local administrative system should also be discussed in this regard. There are less than two years left before the next local elections.ICAC recommends charges | The Australian
"THE New South Wales corruption watchdog has recommended consideration of criminal charges against another 10 people over bribery and fraud at RailCorp involving millions of dollars.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) today handed down its third and fourth reports from its lengthy inquiry into bribery and fraud within the state-owned corporation.
The first two reports, released last month, asked for criminal charges to be considered against six people who are collectively accused of scamming millions of dollars from RailCorp.
The investigation had 'raised a significant number of corruption issues' across all areas, ICAC said.
Instead of making recommendations about RailCorp now, it would instead canvass all the corruption issues in its final report due out later this year, it said.
Today it made corruption findings against former RailCorp employees Allan Walker, Kevin Dulhunty, Paul Sventek, Ivan Stanic and eight contractors - Adam Azzopardi, William Kuipers, Michael Napier, Matthew Napier, Eric Kreichichwost, Paul Szoboszlay, Nick Kouraos and Mark Palombo.
All but Mr Sventek and Mr Kreichichvost have been recommended to be considered for prosecution.
'The ICAC will seek the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with respect to the prosecution of the above individuals for various criminal offences,' the watchdog said."
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) today handed down its third and fourth reports from its lengthy inquiry into bribery and fraud within the state-owned corporation.
The first two reports, released last month, asked for criminal charges to be considered against six people who are collectively accused of scamming millions of dollars from RailCorp.
The investigation had 'raised a significant number of corruption issues' across all areas, ICAC said.
Instead of making recommendations about RailCorp now, it would instead canvass all the corruption issues in its final report due out later this year, it said.
Today it made corruption findings against former RailCorp employees Allan Walker, Kevin Dulhunty, Paul Sventek, Ivan Stanic and eight contractors - Adam Azzopardi, William Kuipers, Michael Napier, Matthew Napier, Eric Kreichichwost, Paul Szoboszlay, Nick Kouraos and Mark Palombo.
All but Mr Sventek and Mr Kreichichvost have been recommended to be considered for prosecution.
'The ICAC will seek the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with respect to the prosecution of the above individuals for various criminal offences,' the watchdog said."
RailCorp workers received corrupt payments: ICAC - National - smh.com.au
"RailCorp employees engaged in corrupt behaviour involving hundreds of thousands of dollars, the corruption watchdog has found as part of its findings into the biggest investigation into the railways in a decade.
In the latest two reports into corrupt behaviour at RailCorp, released this morning, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) found that former RailCorp employee Alan Walker, along with others, received more than $500,000 in connection with his role in falsifying plant hire dockets."
In the latest two reports into corrupt behaviour at RailCorp, released this morning, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) found that former RailCorp employee Alan Walker, along with others, received more than $500,000 in connection with his role in falsifying plant hire dockets."
The Jakarta Post - Drugs trafficking and corruption
This is a response to an article titledforeign drug convicts are on deathrow,' (thejakartapost.com, Aug. 30).
The core of this problem is not the drug traffickers, but the corruption which is omnipresent in Indonesia.
Corruption is the root of this illegality, as is the case with many other offences. Such individuals would not risk hanging if they didn't value their chances of getting away with the crime they are committing.
Why are such cases more limited in other countries such as Singapore?
Maybe when the Indonesian law enforcement agencies at all levels are honestly and objectivelythen drug trafficking, human smuggling, taking bribes instead of applying fines, issuing documents for the transport of illegal timber, minerals, oil, etc... will not be the everyday norm.
But as long as corrupt police officers (which are not few), at all levels, are frequenting at karaoke and nightclubs around the country mixing themselves more with activities and people of dubious nature rather than carrying out the jobs they are paid to do, then Indonesia remains very, very, very far from being 'clean' or 'democratic.'"
The core of this problem is not the drug traffickers, but the corruption which is omnipresent in Indonesia.
Corruption is the root of this illegality, as is the case with many other offences. Such individuals would not risk hanging if they didn't value their chances of getting away with the crime they are committing.
Why are such cases more limited in other countries such as Singapore?
Maybe when the Indonesian law enforcement agencies at all levels are honestly and objectivelythen drug trafficking, human smuggling, taking bribes instead of applying fines, issuing documents for the transport of illegal timber, minerals, oil, etc... will not be the everyday norm.
But as long as corrupt police officers (which are not few), at all levels, are frequenting at karaoke and nightclubs around the country mixing themselves more with activities and people of dubious nature rather than carrying out the jobs they are paid to do, then Indonesia remains very, very, very far from being 'clean' or 'democratic.'"
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