If poor countries are to break away from the clutches of poverty, it is important that the aid they currently receive from the international community is disbursed and used in the most effective ways possible. The European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) and the Uganda National Non-Governmental Organisations Forum (UNNGOF) have identifiedpublic procurement and aid agency procurement as key areas where progress can be made to render aid more effective.
This study examines the magnitude of illicit financial flows from India, analyzing the drivers and dynamics of these flows in the context of far-ranging reform. In the process, it represents perhaps the most comprehensive study on the subject matter, both in terms of the range of issues involved and the time span covered. At its heart is a dynamic simulation model which seeks to capture the interaction of economic, structural, and governance issues that underlie the generation and crossborder transfer of illicit capital.
The first paper in Christian Aid’s tax briefing paper series, Accounting for Change, “Shifting Sands: Tax Transparency and Multinational Companies” charts the progress of the campaign for country by country reporting over the past two years, outlines the rationale for such a standard within the development finance debate, presents a private sector perspective (based on Christian Aid’s dialogue with companies and FTSE100 survey), and answers some of the counter arguments.
With governments committing huge sums to tackle the world’s most pressing problems, from the instability of financial markets to climate change and poverty, corruption remains an obstacle to achieving much needed progress, according to Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption released October 2010.
Consumer demand for expensive rosewood furniture and musical instruments in China and elsewhere is the primary driver of an ecologically devastating trade in illegal timber, according to an October 2010 report published by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Global Witness. The report, launched at the 10th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), shows how this ongoing trade has been facilitated by the complicity of some of Madagascar’s state authorities and weak law-enforcement by the country’s transitional government.
Christian Aid Scotland and the Church of Scotland launched this joint October 2010 report to raise awareness of the billions lost to developing countries from tax evasion and avoidance and to call on the International Accounting Standards Board to introduce an international country-by-country reporting standard.
This October 2010 report from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) highlights how UK banks will avoid paying £19 billion of tax on future profits by offsetting their losses during the financial crisis against their tax bills, and it advocates for an international country-by-country reporting standard for multinational corporations.
This research briefing on secrecy jurisdictions from Tax Research UK–endorsed by the Tax Justice Network and the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development–is designed to briefly provide a clear insight into what secrecy jurisdictions are and what problems they cause.
LONDON—British high street banks have accepted millions of pounds in deposits from corrupt Nigerian politicians, raising serious questions about their commitment to tackling financial crime, warned Global Witness in a report published today. By taking money from corrupt Nigerian governors between 1999 and 2005, Barclays, NatWest, RBS, HSBC and UBS helped to fuel corruption and entrench poverty in Nigeria.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—A pioneering new measurement of government public disclosure in managing oil, gas and minerals ranks Brazil and Norway highest among 41 countries for making public detailed information about these key resources, the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) and Transparency International (TI) announced today.
The report, entitled ‘Investments for Development: Derailed to Tax Havens: A report on the use of tax havens by Development Finance Institutions,’ looks at a critical area in the development activities of many European countries – the role of the Development Finance Institutions that they own in funding private sector investment in developing countries.
A report prepared by the staff the of the Joint Committee on Taxation for a public hearing held on 22 July 2010 before the House Committee on Ways and Means includes six case studies of companies that reported effective tax rates at least 10 percentage points lower than the U.S. statutory rate for a period of years, along with large gaps between the countries in which they reported sales and the countries in which they reported earnings.
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