Millennial Challenges: Imposing Good Governance via www.Bribeline.org? will it work?

Global Strategic Enterprises, Inc for Peace and Prosperity- www.globalbelai4u.blogspot.com; www.SolomonicCrown.org
Globalbelai@yaho.com, globalbelai7@gmail.com

Dear Patriotic Global Citizens and Friends of Ethiopia:

Good governance is about transparency and accountability. The mechanism for ensuring this transparency has been an insider's dealing for a long time. Now, bless the World Bank and may be the new President a new web site called www.bribeline.org is here to catch bribe takers before the money is exchanged.

I love this, as I get lots of e-mails from West Africa, especially Nigeria trying to deposit money stolen from their respective real and imagined banks such as Bank of Africa, etc here in the USA. I have been trying to forward these junk mails to their respective embassies and to FBI and Interpol with little success. Let us see I have a list I can forward to www.Bribeline.org and wonder what they can do with them. Bless the Nigerian Crooks, they will have some one paying attention tothem now at the world bank. My worry is that they might con the World Bank itself and get most of the money meant for Millennium Development Goals themselves.

The real question is who is monitoring the www.Bribeline.org itself. There could be lots of insider's dealing like New York Exchange and no one will know, unless we have a clear cut pathway or policy and procedure on how the web site works and who is it accountable to? and how do you inforce the law? as this is an international web site and many Middle Eastern Countries and their surrogates in West Africa operate with a well definied and accepted bribe line. Imagine the Alqaeda terror network posting their bribe line here at the world bank, it will be very interesting. It is almost a culture in some societies.

The funniest and perhaps what irritated me most was that names will not be collected and it will only be used to alert private US or EU firms to assess their risks!
Aha! Is the World Bank and expecially this new Bribeline outfit, is it a private coroporation led institution? Is this not corruption in itself? where you use public institution to promote private interests?

What about the public institutions that are being abused by the bribe seekers and those who bribe them?. Did these fools forget, that it is the private corporations that bribe the public institutions to seek favour and break the law in the first place? Unless they know instances where the World Bank itslef has been bribing these institutions, it is usually private and international corporations with the money who exploit the civil servants.

The purpose should be to promote good governance across the board, public and private, not to milk the public insititutions in developing countries to facilitate whole sale robbery by giant international corporations. This is a very interesting development and the world shoulld have a say in it. You, the global citizen have a great stake of ensuring that this on line system serves you not the new thieves coming under the cover of the world bank.


All the same, thank God for Al Gore or whoever discovered the internet and now the IPhone, it is possible that any one from any where will take a picture, tape the conversation and e-mail it to www.Bribeline.org.

Please read on and share your wonderful experiences

With regards and seeking your interactive intelligent alternative ideas and comments

Belai Habte-Jesus, MD, MPH
Global Strategic Enteprises for Peace and Prosperity

**************


BRIBEline: Business Registry for International Bribery and Extortion


Welcome to BRIBEline - a secure and anonymous place to report bribe requests and to help combat bribery.

Who we are:

BRIBEline is a project of TRACE

What we do:

BRIBEline's purpose is to collect information about the official or quasi-official entities - governments, international organizations, security forces, state-owned enterprises, etc. - around the world that solicit bribes. BRIBEline focuses on demand-side bribery only; we do not request or collect information about those who pay, or offer to pay, bribes.

BRIBEline does not collect or request any names. The information we collect will not be used to take legal or investigative action. Aggregate information will be made public to shine a spotlight on trouble spots so that they might be improved, and to allow companies to better manage risk.

How to make a report:

To report an incident in which you were asked to pay a bribe, click on the "Continue" button below and fill out the BRIBEline questionnaire. This will not be time-consuming; you will be asked no more than ten multiple-choice questions.
You can only provide one answer to each question. If, in the course of one project or transaction, multiple entities asked for bribes, you will need to fill out the BRIBEline questionnaire multiple times in order to report those requests. If one party or agency asked for multiple bribes over the course of a transaction, you will be able to convey that information by filling out the form only once.



*************
Today’s Headlines: Thursday, July 12, 2007

Anti-Corruption Internet Site Launched
EU Pledges Easier Drug Access for Poorer Nations
FT Editorial: Good governance
‘New Thinking’ Needed On Climate
UN'S ITU Demands 'Marshall Plan' For Africa's Internet Connectivity
Briefly Noted


=====================================================================
Anti-Corruption Internet Site Launched
=====================================================================

“A grouping of companies launched Wednesday a website dedicated to
collecting information about officials and governments around the world
who seek bribes. The US-based Trace International, a non-profit grouping
of multinational firms, said their new website Bribeline.org will allow
people or organizations to anonymously report bribe requests.

Trace said its intent is not to collect names, to deal with those who
offer or pay bribes, to investigate cases or to take legal action. The
organization wants to collect information on bribe-seeking that can be
compiled eventually into detailed country reports to ‘shine a spotlight on
trouble spots’ and that companies can use to manage their risks. …”
[Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Reuters reports that “… The information compiled from BRIBEline will help
companies determine where corruption is most prevalent and will help
governments strengthen their ability to tackle corruption. … The World
Bank, which has a similar disclosure program that encourages firms to
admit when they paid bribes while doing work for the Bank, has estimated
that bribery around the world amounts to about $1 trillion, and affects
the poorest citizens the most.

‘The World Bank knows from experience that nobody wants their names
mentioned,’ said Suzanne Rich Folsom, director of the Department of
Institutional Integrity at the World Bank. Fear is often a deterrent in
reporting corruption, she added. ‘BRIBEline will be real-time information
to all of us who are trying to fight corruption,’ said Folsom. ‘This may
begin to level the playing field...and lower the cost of doing business.’
She said that cracking down on bribery and corruption helped ensure that
development aid benefited the poorest citizens who needed it the most. …”
[Reuters/Factiva]

AP writes that “… The information gathered through BRIBEline will be
collected and publicly reported by country and by ministry or sector - for
example the customs service, the judiciary or the police. … ‘We believe
BRIBEline will be en extremely valuable tool to deter bribery around the
globe,’ said Suzanne Rich Folsom, director of the World Bank's Department
of Regional Integrity. She said BRIBEline will pressure countries to take
remedial action by introducing a cost to their reputation for those whose
officials who seek bribes. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]


=====================================================================
EU Pledges Easier Drug Access for Poorer Nations
=====================================================================

“The European Union will exclude medicine patent provisions from future
trade deals with poorer countries to ease their access to cheaper drugs,
the bloc's executive Commission said on Wednesday.

The European Commission is responsible for negotiating trade agreements
for the 27-nation EU. It was responding to a call from the European
Parliament which wants the bloc to do more to help poorer countries stop
12 million people from dying each year from tropical diseases. Members of
the European Parliament said a 1994 global trade agreement on intellectual
property rights -- known as TRIPS -- restricts the development of
affordable copycat treatments for poorer countries.

‘The Commission can confirm that the European Community is committed not
to including in the economic partnership agreements and in other future
bilateral and regional agreements with poor developing countries any TRIPS
plus provisions which could affect access to medicines,’ EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn told parliament. Under TRIPS, or Trade Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, a developing country can issue
‘compulsory licenses’ to make copycat versions of patented drugs. TRIPS
are negotiated by the World Trade Organization and Thailand has already
issued compulsory licenses. …” [Reuters/Factiva]


=====================================================================
FT Editorial: Good governance
=====================================================================

“…This week, the Bank's Institute published its sixth annual Worldwide
Governance Indicators. The report pools hundreds of indices from 33 data
sources by 30 organizations. It provides a picture of governance across
six categories over a 10-year period and more than 200 countries and
territories. … The World Bank provides a useful role in sifting through a
myriad of data sources and acts as a global arbiter in weighing the
results. Many of the underlying indicators are subjective. There is no
objective scale for judging a country's ‘rule of law.’ That is why the
Bank relies on up to 19 different sources for that measure. The resulting
report allows business groups, reformists and other parts of civil society
to push for better governance, which is crucial for development.

The reaction to the report may not reflect its subtleties. The problem is
that the niceties are often lost when ranking countries or providing a
global top or bottom 10 countries. The Bank must assume this will be the
case, but the inevitable talk of ‘hit parades’ should not detract from its
overall effort. Economists are often accused, justly, of thinking that
what cannot be counted does not count. In this case, economists are trying
to count what - many would say - cannot be counted. The alternatives,
however, are worse. Either we ignore this fact or we make subjective
guesses. For all its weaknesses, the Bank remains best-equipped to crunch
the numbers and deliver the judgment, however unpalatable.” [The Financial
Times (UK)]


=====================================================================
‘New Thinking’ Needed On Climate
=====================================================================

“The international climate debate needs to embrace a ‘new way of thinking’
to tackle the problem, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged.

Too much time was being wasted arguing over ‘historical responsibilities’
for past emissions, Ban said. He called for both industrialized and
developing nations to focus on limiting future global greenhouse gas
emissions. Ban added that he would convene a climate summit to help reach
consensus on a global climate action plan. ‘It is time for new thinking,’
he told an audience at Chatham House, the international think-tank based
in London, UK. ‘This is an agenda that really affects the whole of human
kind. ‘I promise that this challenge and what we do about it will define
us,’ he said. …

Ban, in his first speech in the UK since becoming UN secretary general,
warned that arguing over the legacy of past emissions only wasted time. …
‘To build on the current momentum, I am going to convene a high-level UN
General Assembly debate on 24 September.’ He said that the outcomes from
this meeting would feed into the UN climate negotiation process. …” [The
BBC (UK)]

Kyodo News reports that Ban also said “…. that the organization of which
he is now chief still has an important role to play in the future despite
the problems that have plagued it in recent years, and in the face of a
changing world. … Ban said that, since taking over from his predecessor
Kofi Annan, he had promoted certain areas of concern to receive the
highest level of priority at the top of his agenda; most notably the
Sudanese conflict in Darfur and the Middle East Peace Process, but also
the more general challenges of climate change and the protection of human
rights. …

The U.N. chief added that he was reluctant to impinge on the fundamental
structure of the organization's charter unless there was full consensus
agreement among the member states on any specific issue -- a projected
harmony on which he was focusing. …” [Kyodo News (Japan)/Factiva]


=====================================================================
UN'S ITU Demands 'Marshall Plan' For Africa's Internet Connectivity
=====================================================================

“The UN organization for telecommunications has demanded a 'Marshall Plan'
to help Africa catch up in infrastructure and internet connectivity.

Investment in IT infrastructure in Africa reached $8 billion in 2005,
against $3.5 billion in 2000, said the UN's International
Telecommunications Union (ITU). These investments have been focused on
mobile telephones, and the number of users has increased five-fold in the
same period. However internet connectivity in Africa continues to lag the
rest of the world. …

ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure pointed out the UN target of
connecting all villages in the world to the internet by 2015. Gaps in
infrastructure mean increased usage costs for domestic and business users,
and 70 percent of African internet traffic passes through networks that
are outside the continent. …” [AFX International Focus (France)/Factiva]

AFP adds that “… Toure said meeting the UN's connectivity targets by 2015
would act as a catalyst for broader economic development. The ITU is
aiming to connect all villages in the world to the Internet by then.

The ITU is organizing a ‘Connect Africa’ summit in Rwanda on October 29
and 30, involving the private sector, governments and international
organizations, to promote communications growth on the continent. The UN
telecoms agency was behind a two part ‘World Summit on the Information
Society’ in 2003 and 2005, which had a similar target and ended with a
vague pledge to drive the information technology revolution into poor
countries. Its calls for concrete funding were largely turned down.”
[Agence France Presse/Factiva]


=====================================================================
Briefly Noted
=====================================================================

Nigeria needs between $5 billion to $7 billion per annum to achieve the
UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, Amina Ibrahim, poverty
adviser to the ex-president has said. But brahim says she thinks her
country has the potential to meet the goals intended to eradicate poverty.
[The BBC (UK)]

Africa's worsening energy situation would take centre stage at the revived
EU-Africa Summit in December this year in Lisbon. As one of the policy
initiatives to be discussed, the EU-Africa Partnership on Energy is
expected to help solve the energy problems of Africa. [Ghanaian
Chronicle/All Africa/Factiva]

A southern Africa regional body has distanced itself from reports of a
plan to use South Africa's rand currency to ease Zimbabwe's economic
crisis, but said it was looking at ways to help the beleaguered country.
South Africa's Sunday Independent quoted unidentified sources as saying
the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was working on a plan to
extend the rand monetary union to Zimbabwe. [Reuters/Factiva]

China's sizzling economy grew even faster in 2006 than previously
reported, bringing it closer to overtaking Germany as the world's
third-biggest, and its export-fueled foreign reserves have risen to a new
high of $1.33 trillion, according to official figures released Wednesday.
[The Associated Press/Factiva]

China has frozen planned industrial projects in cities and regions across
eight provinces and vowed to clean up its lakes after finding many
factories blackening waterways in defiance of a crackdown on pollution.
The State Environmental Protection Administration announced the
suspensions after an inspection found companies and local officials
defying pollution limits, the official government Web site announced late
on Wednesday. [Reuters/Factiva]

Chinese police have shut down a Beijing-based Internet news site that
counted the World Bank, UN agencies and a host of foreign aid groups as
clients, its British founder said Wednesday. The China Development Brief
was told to end its operations on July 4 as it was in violation of laws
regarding the carrying out of social surveys, founding editor Nick Young
told AFP. [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

Burma's 52 million people are facing deepening poverty as a result of its
military government's "ill-informed and outdated socio-economic policies"
and "uncompromising attitude" to ethnic minorities, says a confidential
United Nations report. In a bleak assessment obtained by the FT, Charles
Petrie, the UN's top official in Rangoon, said "increasingly arbitrary and
widespread land confiscation" and the junta's agricultural policies were
fuelling rural hunger and driving people from their communities in search
of work. [The Financial Times (UK)]

Ecuador will form a commission next week to audit its foreign debt and
determine if there is any "illegal" debt, which the government has vowed
not to pay, Economy Minister Ricardo Patino told Reuters on Wednesday.
"The commission is ready. Next week the president will name it, but the
decree has been signed," Patino said, adding that foreign experts will be
included in the group. [Reuters/Factiva]

Brazilian renewable energy company Companhia Brasileira de Energia
Renovavel (Brenco) plans to invest some $2.2 billion in building 10 sugar
and ethanol mills in the country, local agricultural news agency Pagina
Rural reported on July 11, 2007. [Latin America News Digest/Factiva]


=========================================================================
This summary is prepared by the External Affairs Department of the World
Bank. All material is taken directly from published and copyright wire
service stories and newspaper articles. The daily summary and other news
can be found on the World Bank's external website at
http://www.worldbank.org/news. For inquiries call 202 473-7660 or send a
written request to the News Bureau.

For more news go to http://www.worldbank.org/news
To subscribe go to http://www.worldbank.org<