AMMAN // Jordan has embarked on an ambitious anti-corruption campaign, hoping to boost public confidence in state institutions in light of complaints of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power, and to prevent corruption from spiralling.
The four-year strategy launched last month, with the help of the European Union, will dovetail with the work of the Anti-Corruption Committee, set up in 2005 with a mandate to fight financial and administrative corruption.
"We have administrative corruption, administrative violations ? fraud and bribery. We are trying to create an environment that will fight corruption and this is where we hope the strategy will help us," Abed Shakhanbeh, head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, said.
Although corruption is not endemic in Jordan - mostly nepotism, small-scale bribery and accountancy fraud - officials are keen to prevent it from spiralling and to change common perception that corruption is inevitable and acceptable.
Last year, Transparency International, a corruption watchdog, ranked the kingdom 53 out of 179 countries on its list of the most transparent, a drop of 13 points, while its perceived corruption ranking grew to 5.3 from 4.7.
The new four-year strategy will review practices of government offices to see if there are any loopholes that could allow for corruption to take place, as well as try to raise awareness among the public of the impact of bribery.
"Now, the challenge lies in implementing [the strategy]," said Claus Heiberg, deputy head of the European Commission's mission to Jordan. "The framework is really there. Let them show some rapid results.
"We should take advantage of the fact that corruption is not deeply rooted in Jordan and yet we need to act quickly."
Jordan has stepped up its fight against corruption over the past two years. An anti-corruption law was endorsed in 2006 in compliance with the UN Convention Against Corruption, which created the ACC.
Several other pieces of legislation, ranging from a financial disclosure law to one on money laundering and an ombudsman law, have been issued.
An access to information law, which was activated last month and promised to widen press freedoms, is also supposed to improve the environment for greater transparency in business and government.
Anti-corruption experts believe that financial corruption is perpetuated by a handful of powerful individuals.
"With limited press freedoms in Jordan, those individuals are far from criticism," said Mamdouh Abbadi, a member of parliament and president of the Jordanian chapter of the Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption.
Officials' abuse of power came to light last month when the government terminated a contract with an engineering consultation company to design and supervise the implementation of an industrial city in the Aqaba Special Economic Zone, south of Jordan, after the media reported that the company belonged to the wife of the zone's chief commissioner.
The government also cancelled a deal with a company it had contracted to build a multimillion dollar housing project for the poor after finding out that the owner of the company was the minister of housing.
In another recent incident, two influential members of parliament who had access to crucial company information inflated the value of the company's stock, causing a rush by investors and pushing the price higher.
The pair then sold their holding and the stock price plummeted, causing small investors to lose out, according to the Arab El Yawm daily.
smaayeh@thenational.ae
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- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
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The specs
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Price: from Dh285,000
On sale: from January 2022
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16, second leg (first-leg scores in brackets):
PSG (2) v Manchester United (0)
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Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)
Cagliari v AC Milan (6pm)
Lazio v Napoli (9pm)
Inter Milan v Atalanta (11.45pm)
Sunday
Udinese v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Sampdoria v Brescia (6pm)
Fiorentina v SPAL (6pm)
Torino v Bologna (6pm)
Verona v Genoa (9pm)
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Company%20Profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20HyveGeo%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Abdulaziz%20bin%20Redha%2C%20Dr%20Samsurin%20Welch%2C%20Eva%20Morales%20and%20Dr%20Harjit%20Singh%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECambridge%20and%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%208%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESustainability%20%26amp%3B%20Environment%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24200%2C000%20plus%20undisclosed%20grant%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVenture%20capital%20and%20government%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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