Policy & Practice: Can Transparency in Government Stop Corruption?

Recorded 16 November 2023.
Corruption is a major societal challenge in governments around the world, undermining economic growth, trust in government and the delivery of basic services to citizens, from stolen medicines in clinics to crumbling roads. According to Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, corruption perceptions are not improving. On the contrary, most countries are failing to stop corruption: 155 countries have made no significant progress against corruption or have declined since 2012. The UK is no exception, with scandals surrounding government procurement contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic and alleged abuses of the honours and peerages system. What can be done to tackle corruption in government? And what role, in particular, can transparency play? In this event, leading scholars and practitioners in corruption and transparency will diagnose the challenges and propose fresh ideas for enhancing integrity in government and ending corruption.  
- Meet the speakers -
Dr Mihaly Fazekas is an associate professor at the Central European University, Department of Public Policy, and the scientific director of the Government Transparency Institute, a think-tank. In these roles, he promotes the implementation of new instruments for measuring corruption and quality of government around the world using ‘Big Data’.
Professor Liz David-Barrett is Professor of Governance and Integrity (Politics) in the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Corruption. She has written several reports for Transparency International, and has given extensive advice to governments, including advising the UK Department for International Development on its International Anti-Corruption programme and the UK Cabinet Office on the 2017-22 National Anti-Corruption Strategy.
Duncan Hames is Director of Policy at Transparency International UK, where he leads the public policy, business integrity and research teams. A former Liberal Democrat politician, he was the MP for the Chippenham constituency in Wiltshire from 2010 to 2015. Between 2012 and 2015, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nick Clegg when he was Deputy Prime Minister.
Chair: Professor Christian Schuster is Professor in Public Management in the UCL Department of Political Science and Academic Co-Director of @UCLPolicyLab.