Posted 1 August 2014
The temptation for public officials to use their positions of power to accumulate wealth has always been there. The iconic picture of the luxury cars owned by Teodorin Obiang, eldest son of the autocratic president of Equatorial Guinea, being towed in Paris comes quickly to mind: how could he afford that on a salary of less than US$55,000 a year?
It is important but difficult to track the assets of those in power to see if their lifestyles are commensurate with their pay packages and not the result of corruption.
In Argentina, civil society teamed up with a national newspaper to develop an online tool that lets anyone do just that, based on the asset declarations of public servants.
Transparency International’s Argentine chapter, Poder Ciudadano, worked with two civil society groups, Fundación Directorio Legislativo and Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia, as well as La Nación, a national newspaper, to build a visual database that’s not only easy to use but provides people with a way to hold their officials to account.