Transparency International pushes for stricter political finance regulations to combat corruption

Global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) is pushing for the adoption of new policy to tackle key corruption risks in how political parties and campaigns are financed.

As part of its new policy position, TI has set out actionable recommendations for countries to consider.

In a recent publication, TI suggested requirements for rigorous bookkeeping, reporting and publication standards for political income and expenditure, with parties, campaigns and candidates required to use transparent and publicly accessible bank accounts to manage their funds.

Further, TI said banks should be required to monitor and report suspicious activity on these accounts to oversight bodies, which should be equipped and empowered to monitor political finances and cooperate with other agencies to pursue accountability for violations.

The agency also wants governments to update regulations to bring greater transparency to online advertising, ban anonymous donations and restrict foreign payments to political entities.

Political integrity policy lead at TI, Jorge Valladares, observed that in 2024, almost half the world’s population cast votes in national elections in more than 70 countries and the European Union.

He argued that “throughout this extraordinary year (2024) for democracy, campaign finance has remained the weakest area of electoral integrity. We’ve seen the sadly familiar faces of political corruption – undue corporate and donor influence, opaque donations, pay-to-play situations, and abuse of state resources – undermining the integrity of political competition”.

François Valérian, chair at TI, said while countries around the globe make commitments to transparency in political finance by joining the 2003 United Nations Convention Against Corruption, these pledges do not always translate into action.

“There is no globally recognised, detailed framework to keep dirty money out of political finances elections and make sure that political power is not for sale. We therefore call on the Conference of States Parties to the UN Convention Against Corruption to address this gap by adopting clear transparency standards in political finance at its eleventh session, scheduled for December 2025 in Qatar,” he said.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW

Under Jamaica’s campaign finance law, political parties and candidates are required to file with the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) how much money they raised during the reporting period.

The political parties and candidates are also required to provide a report to the ECJ of the contributions and donations amounting to $250,000 or more.

In addition, companies or individuals who enter into contracts with the Government during the reporting period and up to two years after contributing have to report that they have entered into a contract with the State.

While the ECJ publicly reports on broad summaries of the contributions and donations reported by the parties and their candidates, the electoral body does not disclose the names of donors to the public.

TI is expected to release its latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) later this month.

The most widely used global corruption ranking in the world, the CPI ranks 180 countries and territories based on their perceived levels of public sector corruption, and considers factors such as bribery, diversion of public funds, prosecution of corrupt officials and the use of public office for private gain.

Jamaica has a score of 44 on the CPI, with a ranking of 69 out of 180 countries.

A CPI score of below 50 means a country has a serious corruption problem in a context where zero is considered highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

editorial@gleanerjm.com