Transparency International

Transparency International, the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, rings people together in a powerful worldwide coalition to end the devastating impact of corruption on men, women and children around the world.  TI’s mission is to create change towards a world free of corruption. Transparency International  hallenges the inevitability of corruption, and offers hope to its victims.

Since its founding in 1993, TI has played a lead role in improving the lives of millions around the world by building momentum for the anti-corruption movement. TI raises awareness and diminishes apathy and tolerance of corruption, and devises and implements practical actions to address it.

Transparency International is a global network including more than 90 locally established national chapters and chapters-in-formation. These bodies fight corruption in the national arena in a number of

ways. They bring together relevant players from government, civil society, business and the media to promote transparency in elections, in public administration, in procurement and in business. TI’s global

network of chapters and contacts also use advocacy campaigns to lobby governments to implement anti-corruption reforms. Politically non-partisan, TI does not undertake investigations of alleged corruption or expose individual cases, but at times will work in coalition with organisations that do.

TI has the skills, tools, experience, expertise and broad participation to fight corruption on the ground,as well as through global and regional initiatives.

For the past 18 years, Transparency International has worked hard to place and maintain corruption high on the political and business agenda. In that time we have established a strong reputation for measuring and fighting corruption. TI has raised awareness of the devastating effects of corruption and worked with governments, business leaders, local communities and other civil society organisations to fight against it. Today the TI Movement includes more than 100 independent national chapters and partners around the world, which take action in support of our mission “to stop corruption and promote transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society”. TI has recently developed a new five year strategy which sets out a number of important directions for the Movement.

The six strategic priorities we have identified are:

People: “Increased empowerment of people and partners around the world to take action against corruption”. The challenge is to engage with people more widely than ever before – for ultimately, only people can stop corruption.

Institutions: “Improved implementation of anti-corruption programmes in leading institutions, businesses and the international financial system.” The challenge is to ensure that commitments to stop corruption are translated into actions, enforcement and results.

Laws: “More effective enforcement of laws and standards around the world and reduced impunity for corrupt acts”. The challenge is enforcing fair legal frameworks, ensuring there is no impunity for corruption.

Values: “Higher levels of integrity demonstrated by organisations and people, especially youth and those in leadership positions around the world”. The challenge is to secure greater commitment to integrity by both current and future generations in all aspects of public and business life.

Network: “Strengthened ability to work together”. We seek to expand the knowledge base of our diverse Movement, so that we can promote ever more effective anti-corruption solutions which have a real impact on people’s lives.

Impact: “Enhance responsiveness, presence, performance and impact at all levels”. We will strengthen the individual and collective performance of all parts of our diverse Movement, ensuring that we have a strong presence and anti-corruption voice nationally, regionally and globally

Transparency International Romania

Transparency International Romania (TI Romania) is a nongovernmental organization whose primary objective is to prevent and fight corruption at a national and international level. 12 years ago, about 30 enthusiasts and believers in the concept of integrity, founded Asociaţia Română pentru Transparenţă –

ART (The Romanian Association for Transparency), which was accepted by Transparency International (TI) as a valid chapter for Romania a year later. The signing ceremony of the articles of association was done in a room borrowed by the Foundation for Development of Civil Society. Since then, years have passed; more and more integrity guardians joined Transparency International Romania (TI-Romania) – either as members or as fellow co-workers.

Since the very beginning, TI Romania focused on preventing and fighting corruption and promoting the Romanian integrity system, mainly through researching, documenting, informing, educating and raising the awareness level of the public. Part of a global movement fighting corruption internationally, TI Romania lives today by the same principles it was founded upon: transparency, responsibility, integrity, solidarity, courage, justice and democracy, and cooperation. The activity grew and today Transparency International Romania is a solid and robust organisation, not only visible but mainly respected by the social, economic and political scene of the country. This position as well as the sound knowledge of the Romanian governance environment argued for TI Romania’s initiative to create with three other NGOs an ad-hoc mediators panel between the judiciary and the executive and legislative powers of the state. During the Autumn of 2009, when the conflict between them made the judiciary enter a general strike that blocked for almost a month the entire judicial system (courts and prosecutor’s offices), the mediation of the Coalition for Rule of Law was successfully concluded with the Principles of the Pact for Justice signed by the representatives of all the three powers and the cease of the protests of the magistrates. As part of the global coalition against corruption, Transparency International Romania also advocates in its approach for new kind of thoroughness that marks the exit from the financial crisis of the business environment. Therefore, our Strategy for 2015 focuses its efforts in the area of preventing corruption and increasing the standard of good governance on the basis of the society’s intrinsic capacity to respond effectively to the threat and impact corruption poses to sustainable development.

The four pillars of the TI-Romania Strategy 2015 will be mainly developed on three priority thematic areas:

• Private sector
• Justice and public administration
• Public services

Within these major areas of intervention, we focus on influencing the values, human capital, rules and institutions on a coordinated series of projects that will define TI Romania’s advocacy and coalition building efforts. Actions to achieve strategic objectives will be developed at all levels: technical and public policy, monitoring and scoring, public awareness and response, coalitions and partnerships to create change in values, people, rules and institutions. On the other vulnerable sectors, our strategic efforts will focus on creating or increasing the capacity of key actors to build effective interventions against corruption.

Along this time, making the most of its view – Respect for People and Rules – TI-Romania worked in the cause of the society with all their skills and expertise with aiming to build a transparent, clean environment for all the stakeholders, be they citizens, media, business sector or public institutions. Summing up, our results could be illustrated in over 5000 citizens assisted and counselled within the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre; over 10 million citizens received the messages of the awareness campaigns; more than 30 public policy or law drafts elaborated by TI-Romania and adopted by the authorities; 70 training courses with 1700 participants; 19% of the cases dealt with by the National Anticorruption Directorate in 2009 are based on the provisions of the article 132, adopted through the Law no. 251/2004, following the advocacy efforts of TI-Romania, with a liability of approx. 56 million Romanian lei and 25 million euros. All the efforts to enhance the public and private integrity environment in Romania remain faithful to our strong belief that difference makes the difference.