Integrity First – Alan Larson- Chairperson of the C4I Board of Directors

Our Board Chair, Alan Larson using his deep foreign service experience and his services as both Ambassador to the OECD and Under Secretary of State for economic, business and agricultural affairs has contributed an excellent article to the Foreign Service Journal.

In the article he explains how  corruption is a deadly virus that can infect any nation. Fighting corruption abroad and banishing it from U.S. foreign policy must be core responsibilities of U.S. diplomats. “Integrity First” should be a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy initiatives and fundamental to the way foreign policy professionals help formulate and conduct foreign policy.  Read more here

Shruti Shah quoted in the Luanda Leaks story about the vulnerability of real estate to laundered money and the lack of due diligence by the real estate industry on buyer’s identities and the sources of their funds. Read more here

Virginia has done nothing to address the lack of enforcement power of its ethics agencies despite scoring in the bottom 10% of all states in the S.W.A.M.P Index. It is important that state ethics agencies have the power to independently investigate, hold public hearings, and issue subpoenas, reprimands, and fines. A toothless ethics agency cannot serve the public well. Michael Deal’s podcast interviewing Ms. Shah, President and CEO of the Coalition for Integrity and discussing the Coalition’s work to change dismal state of VA ethics is now live: http://democracy4change.org/virginia-among-the-worst-states-in-the-union-in-terms-of-ethics-and-transparency/

Coalition for Integrity sent a letter to Director of National Economic Council Larry Kudlow emphasizing support for the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and emphasizing that now is not the time to send the signal that the U.S. is reconsidering or might even weaken the FCPA.  Rather, now is the time to  push for strong and consistent enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and press major economic competitors such as China and India to become signatories to and enforce the obligations of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Read more here.