Around the Bloc: Around the Bloc - Kazakh Businessman Linked to Dissident Jailed in Fraud Case
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More hardships in store as citizens will no longer receive free utilities from next year.
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Illicit financial flows represent a form of capital circulation at local and international level, forming the circulation of financial assets of dubious origin. Their generators are various multinational corporations, corrupt officials, tax evaders, criminal entrepreneurs, etc. Illicit financial flows have diverse forms, including capital flight, money laundering, informal flows and classified financial entities such as tax havens, coming from different areas - shadow economy, tax evasion, and corruption. Conducted studies have shown a strong bilateral link between illicit financial flows and corruption. Corruption generates illicit financial flows and contributes to legalization of illicit money by different money laundering schemes at local and international level. Studies also demonstrated the importance as a catalyst of the quasi-corruption phenomenon. Both corruption and illicit financial flows have a negative impact on economic development, especially in developing countries. With a high level of poverty, countries annually illegally lose financial resources that could help solve their internal problems. As an eloquent example, this article relates the case of the Republic of Moldova. Endemic corruption of systemic character has a destructive economic, financial and social influence in Moldova, favouring the illegal money exodus.
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The subject of this article is to review the status of administration in Turkey on right to information through examining the municipality websites. In this study, websites of 51 municipalities in Turkey were analyzed in accordance with the sections of theAct of Basis and Principles for Right to Information. The results have revealed that all of the municipalities have some incompleteness on their websites in terms of right to information. Municipalities haven't published most of the information and documents that have to be published according to the Act yet. The results also have revealed that accountability haven't been put into practice by all means in municipalities and their status hasn't been compatible with the idea of transparent and accountable administration yet.
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Corporate Governance (CG) has been viewed by many in the Western world as a particularly Western concept and mechanism. Current expectations by executive management groups of their Board run the gamut of “sober second thought” and conservative oversight focused on compliance issues, through involvement in strategy development and direction, to daily consultation on operational strategy implementation. The challenge along all points of this spectrum is the balance between independence and discipline on the one hand and self-interests of the Board members in the overall success of the corporation, from both a financial and an ego perspective. This article outlines key findings resulting from focused interviews and indepth reviews of research related to the practice of corporate governance in Asia. Interviews were conducted in Hong Kong (6) and Malaysia (12) and focused on CG in those two countries. The goal was to establish areas of consistency or divergence from findings in the interviews. Findings indicate that CG continues to struggle in areas of transparency and limited independence of Board members. Increased legislation in the focal countries studied (Malaysia and Hong Kong) has helped, but progress has been slow.
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Corruption, a term which had been mentioned even in ancient sources, has become a concept that generates an ever-growing number of preoccupations to measure its effects and identify the most effective ways to implement strategies for preventing and combating it. Having in view the complexity of the causes that generate corruption and related risk factors, which may result in critical distortions in the political, economical and social area, it tends to become a habitual and endemic phenomenon in Romania. Against such a background, the campaigns for corruption prevention and fight have to be institutionalised and systematised, in order to make goal-oriented efforts, and this way, unwanted effects will not only be limited, but they will meet public interest, entailing an approach that embodies managerial strategies at the level of public institutions and services.
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The present article aims to highlight the kinds of tax evasion methods in the field of products subject to excise duty and the role of the tax inspection in combating them. The research reveals which are the most common methods of tax evasion, but it tries to discern the probable developments of the process. The article has in view the inexorable reality, namely that the ingenuity method of tax fraud increases with the emergence of the new rules or barriers to the fraud. Following the research carried out we found that the tax evasion phenomenon in the field of products subject to excise duty has currently a significant impact in the economic and social Romanian reality. In order to reduce the tax evasion phenomenon in the field of products subject to excise duty, it must set up a mechanism for monitoring, oversight and fiscal control as well as the amendment of legislation, the tax evasion being mainly a consequence of the inaccuracies or imperfection of laws.
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The world is currently living to its edges, menaced at each corner by environmental changes, terrorist attacks, civil wars or biological weapons let loose. With the emerging of the Islamic State and other terrorist cells the entire world under the peaceful globalization sphere questions its security. The paper aims to focus on detailing the most modern ways of financing terrorism, including through tax haven offshore companies, and the charity paradox. Charity institutions, several banks and even Non-Profit Organizations go hand in hand with a full range of felonies, from money laundering to narcotic traffic, humans trafficking, organized crime, arms dealing and terrorist attacks. The paper aims to offer pertinent solutions to tax havens and light legislation in order to prevent terrorist groups and cells from becoming an extensively rich and potent menace to global and state security.
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Lawyers are not immune to committing offences and the provisions of criminal law apply to them accordingly. The criminal liability of lawyers represents a natural aspect in the rule of law. Lawyers involved as defendants in criminal cases do not benefit from any special status or privileges compared to other defendants. In the international context of the fight against money laundering, the community law has submitted the profession of lawyer to two obligations concerning vigilance and denouncement. The assimilation of lawyer’s profession to financial or non-regulated professions entails the deformation of rules and principles specific to lawyers, as well as discussing the bases of any democratic society: the professional secrecy of lawyers and their independence.
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The article deals with problems of economic and financial security ensuring both in companies and state. The Corruption Perceptions Index has been analyzed as one of the most important indicators in this sphere. The following research methods have been used: generalizing theoretical knowledge, comparison method, method of analysis and synthesis, statistical analysis, factual analysis. The authors give their own definitions to such concepts as “security”, “financial security of the enterprise”, “economic security of the enterprise”. There have been also systematized the threats to the economic security of the enterprise, as well as means of its strengthening. The rating of Ukraine according to the Corruption Perceptions Index has been identified. Also, the perspectives of future research have been defined.
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This study aims to review previous developed studies regarding the institutional investors’ issue, as the influence they exert in the companies they invest in is growing in importance. In the first part, the paper tries to review the existing literature regarding the institutional investors’ research theme, especially regarding their attitude towards investment, while the second main part will try to describe the presence of institutional investors in Romanian listed companies. Also, the paper aims to review previous studies regarding the influence of institutional investors over corporate governance mechanisms (especially board’s members’ independence and composition) and financial and non-financial disclosure practices.
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Nowadays, globalisation and business internalisation have led to an increased number of frauds in organisations worldwide. The most affected are the multinational corporations because of the geographical distance, different fiscal systems and local factors that consist in tremendous opportunities for employees and/or managers to involve in fraud schemes. Starting from recent studies and prior efforts of international organisations or countries to stop fraud by imposing regulations to be respected for the economic environment, the purpose of the paper is finding the key factors for detecting and preventing fraud in the organisations. In our approach we use several proposals for a conceptual framework developed by two companies of “The big four”, KPMG and Deloitte. The results indicate that for the number of fraud to decrease, any organisation needs to develop and implement a strong anti-fraud plan, by covering all logical steps to be made in this matter.
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The characteristic elements of the new economy require economic entities new performance standards that go beyond economics. These standards should be integrated into corporate strategy development to ensure sustainability of activities. Globalization affects corporate governance reforms currently characterized by what we call corporate responsibility and transparency. Companies are pressed to provide in addition to financial information the non-financial information, which focus on social and environmental impact of their activities and the way sustainability related constraints are integrated into their strategy for achieving organizational success. This paper highlights the changes imposed by sustainable development on corporate governance regarding the increased information that stakeholders need and the way performance is seen, as a holistic concept. Today, corporations are challenged to meet through performance the values, interests and expectations of society. The main objective of a corporate governance system is to assure a sustainable growth of the company taking into consideration the new standards imposed by the requirements of sustainable development.
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The Phanariot period in Romanian history is synonymous for many people with the corruption, the excessive fiscal policies, the denouncements , the hope of rapid enrichment, the endless conflicts between Boyars of Wallachia and Moldavia, the Greeks and the rapacious rulers, the monasteries dedicated to the Holy Places of the Orient and especially, the resentments of population against the privileges of the clergy and monks Greek etc. A closer look at social realities reveals the interest of some rulers to the good functioning of the administration, education and culture in the Principates, often appealed to the concepts and reformist ideas. But it's really important was that the Wallachia and Moldavia did not lose their autonomy although it was limited. The presence of a Christian ruler at their head was the symbol of the preservation of the statehood. The rest are details or are the pages from lives people who have lived in that period full of major provocations.
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The concept of transparency has increasingly attracted the attention of academic, political and business areas. Many studies have demonstrated the need for adopting this corporate governance principle also in the public sector, a phenomenon that has become widespread at international level. The academic study field defines transparency as the ability to look clearly through the window of an institution. Starting from this statement, the research focuses on the importance of transparency in public governance and on the framework for identifying and assessing this concept. Furthermore, this paper also analysis the limits of this notion in order to maintain its significance and effectiveness. Thus, based on the literature review, this study summarizes the opinions and arguments of various authors in the field regarding the notion of transparency in the public sector. At the same time, it analysis the conclusions of empirical studies on this topic. The results of the study reveal the importance and necessity of information disclosure among different users for increasing citizens' trust in government and achieving good governance. However, the positive aspects of transparency tend to be overestimated and considering the ambiguity of this concept it should be carefully handled.
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This paper aims to analyze the legal consequences of exceeding the job duties of a public servant during their exercise. Given that there are many situations in the practice where public officials, during the working hours, perform other activities than those in the job description or even personal activities, we consider that the present approach is of interest for both the academic environment and legal practitioners. Thus, we will analyze the implications of exceeding the service duties in terms of the legislation in force both in the criminal and in the disciplinary liability context of public servant. The unpredictable character, ascertained by the Constitutional Court of Romania, of the constitutive elements of the offense of abuse of service has determined anticorruption prosecutors to initiate a criminal investigation and to prosecute civil servants for such activities. Although we admit that civil servants have to exercise their duties with the utmost diligence, we consider that exceeding the service duties or carrying out personal activities, during the working hours, cannot have criminal connotations and can be classified as disciplinary offense at most. In the following, starting from a situation encountered in the recent jurisprudence of Romania, we will try to argue with examples from the judicial practice what are the consequences of exceeding the service duties by the public servant, but especially why this misconduct cannot have criminal connotations.
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UK authorities seize almost half a million pounds believed to be derived from ex-Moldovan PM’s corrupt activities.
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In the early years of Nigeria’s political independence political corruption was spread over the whole society. The causes of corruption can he found in the fact that state officials enjoy too many discretionary rights, that the state interferes with the country’s social and economic life, that the administration is inefficient and slow: to this the tradition of maintaining a family that includes collateral branches has to be added, as well as remains of colonial mentality and traditions. The author considers that through education and the socialization of the population, as well as by introducing new symbols of social success and the creation of unique moral values in the state administration, the negative consequences of political corruption might be reduced.
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Detection of bribery cases is very hard in practice, as all parties suspected to be involved in the process are not incentivized to cooperate with law enforcement authorities. Most legal systems treat bribe-giving and bribe-taking as symmetric and interdependent criminal actions, thus making whistle-blowing on corrupt officials much harder. This paper investigates the effects of different punishment systems on deterring bribery. The overall aim is two-fold: the first is to outline the differences between the symmetric and asymmetric punishment systems and to explore the impact of legal liability of parties engaging in collusive bribery; the second is to propose a theoretical approach to deterring collusive bribery labeled as “facilitated asymmetric liability model”.
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EU is discursive field where multiple meanings are created, negotiated and contested. Research has shown that it has interpretive power often used as an instrument of political confrontation. Such is the case, this study argues, with the two largest Macedonian parties – the Social Democrats and VMRO-DPMNE – who in a pursuit of changing or maintaining power have produced an EU discourse fitting to their own political agendas. In a situation of a prolonged political crisis, and a significant EU involvement in it, the two parties have turned their EU discourse into an instrument of positive presentation of the self and a negative presentation of the other. The general goal of the study is to analyze the specific discursive strategies in the party programs and media statements of the two parties and their leaders.
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The paper analyzes basic features of possible causal relationships between the culture and the corruption of Serbian society. Throughout the history, Serbian people have crystallized a specific relationship towards the administrative apparatus of their own society and country. The multi-century subjection characterized the development of subjected life shaped through the relation of a conqueror-subject. Such character of life has put on the form of a custom, which was maintained even later in the period of state independence, as a response to forms of government. In the era of great social changes by the end of the 20th century, this customary form was not superseded. On the contrary, under conditions of globalization development as the new model of interconnected society, corruption is stimulated by external mechanisms of the new model of development, which hindered the realization of real efforts of the society in the battle against corruption under the newly created conditions of social relationships.
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