Ecuador is again threatening to suspend payments on foreign debt deemed "illegitimate" pending the release later this week of a long-awaited report by the country's government appointed debt audit commission.
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Rafael Correa, Ecuador's left-wing president, has heightened fears that the Andean nation will default on parts of its $10bn (£6.8bn) foreign debt, saying an internal audit due this week will determine if the debt is "illegitimate".  Full story »

The official overseeing an audit of Ecuador's foreign debt said his committee found evidence of abuses and irregularities tied to almost all of the country's bonds and will recommend a default on $10.3 billion in national debt.  Full story »

Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa said he'll suspend payments on foreign debt he deems ``illegitimate'' should an upcoming report find there is legal basis to do so.  Full story »

Details of the World Bank's invite-only, day-long roundtable on illegitimate debt in April are now available online here.

The World Bank convened the roundtable in response to feedback from civil society groups (CSOs) to its September 2007 discussion paper, "Odious Debt: Some Considerations." CSOs generally lambasted the release as one-sided and for failing to engage with important arguments posed by the doctrine of odious debts; a move, or lack thereof, viewed by longtime debt campaigners as dismissive.  Full story »

Liberia has risen from the bottom ranks of the World Bank's most corrupt country list to earn the distinction of graft's most zero-tolerant post-conflict nation, reports Africa's opinion journal, The Analyst.

A recent report by the Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators Institute (WGI) indicates that at the current rate, Liberia has shown the largest improvement of any country in the world in controlling corruption.  Full story »

The president of Bangladesh this month appointed a three-member Truth and Accountability Commission in an effort to claw back ill-gotten gains from corrupt businessmen and politicians who could receive clemency if they confess their wrongdoing and refund money obtained illegally.

The country's military-backed government, which launched a nationwide anti-graft campaign after taking power in January 2007, hopes the commission will help clear a massive backlog of corruption cases, Independent Online reports.  Full story »

Last month, the House of Representatives showed leadership in the fight against global poverty by passing the Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Expanded Debt Cancellation, which would extend lifesaving debt cancellation to more poor nations around the globe.  Full story »

Indonesia: Three years of Megawati Soekarnoputri's presidency have delivered plenty of easy money to the ruling elite, but have delivered little or nothing to the unemployed, to parents who must pay bribes to send their children to school and who watch them die when the hospital bill is too high, writes reporter Matthew Moore. The Democrat Party leader, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, must now be considered the standout favourite in Indonesia's upcoming July presidential election, not only because his party has come from nowhere but because so many people consider him the cleanest of the candidates.  Full story »

World Bank funding has been called out as a large contributor to Kenya's 'culture of corruption' in the wake of last year's presidential election crisis. Allegations of fraud and vote-rigging in December's violently disputed election follow years of government malfeasance and graft under current President Mwai Kibaki and his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi. But crooked tracks have yet to derail the World Bank money train to Kenya. A recent round of news coverage by North American analysts, urges U.S. taxpayers to pay more attention to how their dollars are being spent in a country where bribery is estimated to cost Kenyans around $1 billion each year.  Full story »