A journalist from Senegal and an auditor from Indonesia have won the Transparency International 'Integrity Awards' for 2005.

The awards were presented in Berlin last Friday to Khairiansyah Salman, auditor at the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in Indonesia, and to investigative journalist Abdou Latif Coulibaly.

An independent Israel-based watchdog, the Movement for Quality Government (MQG) was honoured for 'increasing public awareness of corruption in Israel'.

Peter Eigen, 67, who founded Transparency International (TI) 12 years ago, said at the award ceremony at the Dresdner Bank premises that Salman and Coulibaly were 'heroes who stood up in the face of corruption, and succeeded in improving the lives of their countrymen.'

Salman had revealed 'grand corruption' in the procurement activities of the General Election Commission and exposed bribery involving Commission members, Eigen said.

The organisation accused Salman of violating its code of conduct, and he also found himself under attack in the media. But protected under the Corruption Eradication Commission's witness protection scheme, Salman is now employed by the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency.

Journalist Abdou Latif Coulibaly devoted 10 years to fighting corruption and bringing to light financial scandals, embezzlement cases and irregularities in public contracting, said Eigen.

When he published a book in 2003 about the Senegal government's poor governance practices, attempts were made to silence him. He suffered serious pressure and death threats, and became a target of 'the political elite's spite'.

The MQG was hailed by Eigen for pressuring Israel's government to 'address social and civic issues - despite its preoccupation with security issues'.

It had also helped introduce principles of sound public administration and quality government by 'shining the light on secret coalition agreements, and exposing financial arrangements connected to the state's annual budget'.

Courage and determination

Transparency established its Integrity Awards in 2000 to recognise the courage and determination of many individuals and organisations fighting corruption. Nominations for the awards - presented as statues made of marble and glass - came from more than 70 TI national chapters and 30 information outlets.

Winners of the TI awards in recent years have included Dr.Milica Bisic, a former administration chief in the Republic of Srpska within Bosnia, Naftali Lagat, a Kenyan police officer, Satyendra Kumar Dubey, former executive in India's National Highway Authority who was given the award posthumously in 2004, Dr Dora Akunqili of Nigeria, Sua Rimoni Ah Chong of Samoa, Jana Dubovoca from Slovakia, Dr Peter Schoenhoefer from Germany and Luis Roberto Mesquita from Brazil.

Transparency International was formally launched in Berlin in 1993 by Peter Eigen, who was earlier manager of programmes in Africa and Latin America for the World Bank. His employer's unwillingness to get involved in tackling corruption led him to leave the World Bank and set up TI.

Eigen says corruption has become a major world problem alongside overpopulation, environmental degradation, Aids and poverty. It calls for a massive, systematic attack at the local, regional, and global levels, he said.

Eigen stepped aside as TI head over the weekend. Canadian Huguette Labelle was voted in as head of Transparency International at the annual membership meeting in Berlin Sunday.

Chancellor of the University of Ottawa, TI board member Huguette Labelle had earlier worked for almost seven years as president of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

She told TI delegates in Berlin that she had witnessed first hand the 'ravages of corruption on human development: how it deprived poor people of the resources required to pull themselves out of poverty, how they were denied access to education, health, water, credit and citizenship because they could not afford the bribes demanded'.

She added: 'I also saw how corruption distorted trade, and contributed to the failure of states, with associated high morality, destabilisation, conflict and insecurity. This is when corruption struck me as being a matter of life and death.'

She said she will push expansion of ethical standards in the business world, and seek more allies in the fight against corruption. - IPS