Joe Murphy recently talked in a post on the FCPA Blog about antitrust concerns under U.S. law for competitors who band together to fight corruption. I'd like to explain how and why the antitrust issue can be mitigated.
As the problems created by corruption affect society as a whole, everyone would benefit from its eradication. Unfortunately, however, perceptions of corruption may not always align with this view which is why it is of utmost importance to raise awareness of corruption by way of education and training, and greater knowledge of the consequences of corruption may enable its elimination. That being said, corruption cannot be tackled alone, and the concept of Collective Action could ensure that businesses have the opportunity to use the power of unity to make a difference.
IRU Secretary General, Umberto de Pretto, unveils the scale and damages of corruption on roads and explains how the world road transport organisation is tackling this issue head on.
In short, it’s a joint effort between the IRU and United Nations Global Compact to fight extortion and corruption along major road transport corridors. We’re working together to secure the sustainable development of global supply chains, hence economies, worldwide.
This piece was originally published by the TRACE International Blog on 8 May 2015. Republished here with permission.
As we soon approach the one year anniversary of the 2014 ICCA Conference "Collective Action: Going Further Together to Counter Corruption" this blog piece returns to one of the key messages to emerge from the event, on the topic of engagement with government in Collective Action.
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the conference “Integrity Pacts – Safeguarding EU Funds” in Brussels, hosted by Transparency International (TI) and with the participation of the European Commission. The conference was held in the context of a pilot project recently launched by the Commission - "Integrity Pacts - Civil Control Mechanism for Safeguarding EU Funds" – which will explore the applicabil
Building sectoral anti-corruption agreements among competitors can be a significant challenge in Collective Action. Sectoral agreements, or sectoral pacts, aim to create conditions of fair and transparent markets through discouraging certain practices of corruption by defining clear rules among competitors.
For businesses, sectoral agreements can be more effective than working in isolation, as many companies may fear being excluded from markets of interest for daring to announce having been subject to bribe solicitation in a procurement process, for example.
The role and scope of the compliance function is being reshaped; now compliance officers need to make their control environment work in practice and be able to express an opinion on how well it’s working or not working.
Cecilia Müller Torbrand is Senior Legal Counsel, Group Compliance Officer of the Maersk Group, the container shipping industry leader and one of the founding companies of the Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN). She spoke to the ICCA recently about the MACN and its work towards a shipping industry free of bribery and corruption. Mrs Müller Torbrand serves as the Chair for the network.
"The advantage to mankind of being able to trust one another penetrates into every crevice and cranny of human life: the economical is perhaps the smallest part of it, yet even this is incalculable." John Stuart Mill (1848) [ref]
In our first post we proposed a universal business ethics principle:“A basic duty of every organization is to earn stakeholder trust.”