Name, shame and sue leaders stealing from state coffers

By Stella Dawson

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Jose Ugaz, the new head of Transparency International, brings an activist bent and prosecutor's zeal to the job of leading the world’s largest anti-corruption organisation.

Top of his agenda is to name and shame kleptocrats who plunder state coffers in a campaign called Unmask the Corrupt, which promises to inject new energy into Transparency International (TI), a 21-year-old group more known for wielding influence in the corridors of power than for street protest.

“We have been very successful in putting corruption onto the international agenda and creating the tools to address corruption. Now we have to work with people and identify corrupt officials and leaders who are stealing public money and unmask them,” Ugaz said in an interview.

The 55-year-old Peruvian lawyer has deep experience.

He led the 2000-2002 investigation against former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori and his head of intelligence Vladimiro Montesinos in grand corruption cases involving more than 1,500 members of Fujimori’s criminal network, and recovered more than $75 million in stolen assets.

He also was a human rights official working in El Salvador, Sri Lanka and Costa Rica.

Elected last month to head TI, Ugaz wants to use his global position to expose grand corruption in many more corners of the world using non-traditional methods, especially where corruption has undermined state functions and the rule of law.

“Very often corruption has impacted the judicial system, the courts, the judges and the police. Where they are not working properly we are investigating cases and will bring social sanctions and publicly expose them,” Ugaz said by telephone from Peru.   Continued...