Transparency International annual meeting deplores UK government failure to fight foreign bribery

TI movement elects three new board members, re-elects five

Transparency International (TI) spoke out strongly at the close of its Annual Membership Meeting yesterday in Athens, Greece, on the UK government’s failure to enforce the ban on foreign bribery by its companies under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, to which the UK has been a party for nearly a decade.

The statement was made in one of four resolutions approved by delegates from over 90 TI national chapters and individual members of TI. The world’s leading anti-corruption organisation also condemned the rising incidence of threats against anti-corruption advocates, which included the bombing of the home of a TI national chapter director in Sri Lanka in late September.

Two further resolutions laid out positions on the unfolding global financial crisis and the backtracking of the South Korean government on previously exemplary anti-corruption commitments. All resolutions are available online here.

Transparency International elects new board

The Annual Membership Meeting also re-elected TI Chair, Huguette Labelle (Canada), and Vice-Chair, Akere Muna (Cameroon) to another three-year term as TI’s global leadership. Three further incumbent board members, Sion Assidon (Morocco), Boris Divjak (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Gerard Zovighian (Lebanon), were also re-elected.

The TI movement elected three new board members, Rueben L. Lifuka (Zambia), Delia Matilde Ferreira Rubio (Argentina) and Iftekhar Zaman (Bangladesh) (brief biographies below).

TI co-founder and outgoing board member, Frank Vogl, a communications expert who has been instrumental in shaping TI’s public profile, will continue his engagement with TI as a member of its Advisory Council, after having served four terms on the board.

With around three-hundred attendees, the 2008 Annual Membership Meeting in Athens was the largest to-date for TI, which celebrated its 15th Anniversary during the meeting.

Brief biographies of newly elected TI board members

Delia Ferreira Rubio (Argentina) is a lawyer by training, but has worked in academia, as a political advisor, and around the globe as a consultant on governance and transparency for institutions such as the United Nations Development Program and the Inter-American Development Bank. Ferreira is currently chair of the board of Poder Ciudadano, TI’s national chapter in Argentina.

Rueben L. Lifuka (Zambia) is an architect and project manager by training and currently runs his own organisational development and project management consulting firm. Lifuka also currently serves as the president of TI Zambia.

Iftekhar Zaman (Bangladesh) holds a PhD in economics and has worked extensively as a researcher and manager of research institutions such as the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) in Sri Lanka and the Bangladesh Institute for International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), where he worked for 19 years. Having published a wide range of books and research articles over his career, Zaman has been the Executive Director of TI Bangladesh, one of TI’s largest and most dynamic national chapters, since 2004.

For more information on TI’s Board of Directors, please visit: www.transparency.org/about_us/organisation/board/board

All resolutions are available online at: www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/2008/ti_2008_amm#AMM_resolutions

###

Media Contact:
Jesse Garcia, Communications Officer
Tel: +30 697 963 0458 (Until 4 Nov 08) / +49 171 442 9494 (from 5 Nov 08)
Email: jgarcia@transparency.org