The TINZ 2020 AGM in November was the last official act of Suzanne Snively as Chair of Transparency New Zealand. For ten years she has been the driving force behind TINZ during which time the influence of our organization has expanded dramatically.

Today, 9 December 2020 is International Anti-Corruption Day, with the theme ‘Recover with Integrity’. The response to the COVID-19 virus is creating new opportunities to exploit weak oversight and inadequate transparency, diverting funds away from people in their hour of greatest need.

Just as we are using the COVID app and wearing masks, we also need to protect our homes, incomes, businesses and our open lifestyle from attacks by malevolent fraudsters.

In October 2020, Transparency International EU published a report finding that of the 39 biggest banks in Europe, 31 declared profits in low or zero-tax jurisdictions. Of these, 29 banks had no people working in the country where large portions of their profits were declared.

Transparency International New Zealand has three areas of major concern about New Zealand government procurement: poor quality of data on the Government Electronic Tendering System (GETS),  poor and incomplete publication of emergency procurements undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic, and lack of secondary procurement data.

In New Zealand human rights law sits mainly within the purview of the Human Rights Commission, Crown Law and the Ministry of Justice.  Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt, is calling for New Zealand to take on the challenge of implementation, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because we are legally bound to this journey.

The threat of Australia and New Zealand being used for international corruption remains real. The combination of a reputation for probity coupled with limited enforcement capacity and legislative gaps is an extremely dangerous one.

Transparency Times from the Chair October 2020. The new higher standard of transparency CNN set for the 2020 US election television coverage is a win for democracy.

Our Parliament has exhibited an admirable tone from the top during the COVID-19 crisis. A strong Parliamentary code of conduct goes a long way to ensuring they do as well during the next crisis

As New Zealand moves aggressively toward recovery, businesses have a chance to re-engineer their integrity systems to cement their brands in the post COVID-19 world.

Never in New Zealand’s history has it been more important to channel government spending inwardly to ensure it is delivering sustainable outcomes for New Zealanders. A Particularly salient section of the latest Government Procurement Rules is Rule 16 ‘Broader outcomes.’

TINZ is releasing a report: Online Political Campaigning in New Zealand We recommend that Parliament takes the opportunity to not only maintain New Zealand’s status and reputation as a leader in political integrity, but to show other countries the way forward in dealing with this critical issue for protecting democracies and fighting political corruption.