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Is it time for the citizens of Cuyahoga County to launch an anti-corruption initiative?
The idea came to mind as I read reports on the latest ranking of corruption in Asia by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Group (PERC). (The other major survey is compiled by Transparency International and was released last December.)
You can read more about the PERC survey here.
We are seeing more efforts at bringing accountability to government. See, for example, the Transparency and Accountability Network.
In Indonesia, a corruption eradication commission (the KPK) is credited with improving the scores in that country. (The success of the commission in Indonesia led Malaysia to launch an anti-corruption commission in January. Anti-corruption commissions also operate in other countries like Kenya.)
The PERC survey of measuring corruption relies on interviews with foreign business executives. The PERC polled more than 1,700 expatriate business executives.
Is it time for an Anti-Corruption Commission in Cuyahoga County?
In response to Frank Revy’s comment below, I add these thoughts:
For anyone interested in an anti-corruption effort in Cuyahoga County, add your voice here.
The next step will be to organize a Meet-up if enough people are interested.
A Citizen’s Commission would have to overcome at least three forces that operate in Cuyahoga County: apathy, fear and malevolence.
Update: 4/10/09:
It’s pretty clear this idea is going nowhere. My experience teaches me that you can get about 80% of your response in the first couple of days after a post. We clearly do not have enough interest to push this idea forward.
On the positive side, though, I have worked out a simple protocol for evaluating the critical mass needed in a network for launching an initiative. This will be extremely useful in my future work. Sometimes, failed ideas provide the best opportunity to advance your thinking!
Last 5 posts by Ed Morrison
- Signing off - February 3rd, 2012
- "The current global development model is unsustainable" - February 1st, 2012
- Market opportunities for developing Chicago's green economy - January 29th, 2012
- Plain Dealer flubs its explanation for firing Tony Grossi - January 27th, 2012
- Linking and leveraging university assets to strengthen regional economies - January 27th, 2012
April 8th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
All right, I’ll bite – and my answer to your question is: YES!
April 9th, 2009 at 1:57 am
So, Frank, here’s the really interesting question. Who among us is willing to step forward to begin this effort?
We’ve gotten some volunteers over at Map the Mess. We can self-appoint a “citizen’s commission” (more like a network) to start.
Cuyahoga’s corruption is dragging down the region, so perhaps enough people can conclude that we need to try something different. After all, it’s not possible to fall off the floor.
So, for anyone interested in an anti-corruption effort in Cuyahoga County, add your voice here:
http://snurl.com/fjnck
The next step will be to organize a Meet-up if enough people are interested.