Ukraine’s defence sector scored a ‘D’ in the 2015 edition of Transparency International’s Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index (GI); signifying low transparency and a ‘high’ risk of corruption. Defence procurement scored even lower and was highlighted as the most opaque and corruption-prone area in the defence sector. To help improve this, NAKO has studied the phenomenon […]
The global defence sector is both enormous and highly vulnerable to corruption. Over the last decade, both exporting governments and industry players have taken important steps to prevent corruption, but despite the many advances in law and compliance, corruption in the international arms trade persists. More needs to be done to tackle this issue and […]
Corruption undermines the success of international interventions, reducing mission effectiveness, diminishing public trust in intervention forces. Where intervention forces lack adequate oversight and control, for example, or procurement is based on the interests of a single individual or state rather than the requirements of the organisation, its ability to respond to crises suffers. International organisations […]
The “Global Standards” initiative envisages the creation of an international political declaration, which would universalise norms around what it means to be a responsible power in the 21st Century, including commitments to basic transparency and accountability in one of the most opaque and closed-off sectors in the world. Such a global consensus would set a […]
Ahead of the 2019 Presidential elections in Nigeria, Transparency International and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center (CISLAC) are calling on candidates to commit to scrapping the unaccountable and secretive “security vote” spending – one of the most durable forms of corruption in Nigeria—saying that they fail to provide real security for citizens. Read the […]
The Tunisian anti-corruption landscape has developed significantly since 2011. Tunis has created anti-corruption institutions, issued stronger legislation on public access to information and protection of whistle-blowers, and proposed legislation on declaring assets and probing illicit enrichment. This marks positive progress that should be both applauded and capitalised upon. Yet the defence sector – which generally […]
Ahead of presidential elections in Egypt, our new report analyses the role and growing economic power of the military. This report is currently unavailable to download. It will be re-uploaded as soon as possible.
This briefing focuses on tackling corruption and increasing the effectiveness of the medical supply system of the Ukrainian military. It aims to analyse corruption risks within medical procurement, and to provide recommendations for how to strengthen the system against these risks. This briefing note is based on an analysis of three cases, together with interviews with the employees of the Ministry of Defence (MOD), volunteers and international experts.
“The Fifth Column”, found that states most affected by corruption are very often victims of deep conflict. Seven of the ten lowest-scoring countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index were also amongst the ten least peaceful countries in the most recent Global Peace Index.
Corruption and insecurity reinforce one another in conflict environments. Conflict often weakens state institutions and shifts the balance of expectations and incentives, entrenching corruption, undermining the development of state capacity, and encouraging cycles of impunity that leave whole populations angry and disenfranchised. This can be particularly pernicious when it affects defence and security institutions, turning them from protectors into predators that endanger human security, slow down development, and can perpetuate conflict.
The report identifies improvements in how assistance is monitored, but calls for improved regulation and oversight of security assistance, and greater transparency of key strategic planning documents like the State Defense Order and defence budget. The report also called on donor countries to use international aid as a leverage to push for systemic anti-corruption reform in the Ukrainian defense sector.