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Transparency International

Publications and news by Transparency International.

Publications

Investing With Integrity II: How Corruption Undermines Environmental And Social Outcomes
Report

Investing With Integrity II: How Corruption Undermines Environmental And Social Outcomes

28 Mar 2024

This is a guide for impact investors on how corruption can undermine environmental and social outcomes, and about how coordinating due diligence across business integrity and environmental and social workstreams can help identify these links. This guidance puts business integrity at the heart of impact investing.

Model Monitoring Agreement and Integrity Pact for Infrastructure: An implementation guide for civil society organisations
Guidelines

Model Monitoring Agreement and Integrity Pact for Infrastructure: An implementation guide for civil society organisations

1 Jan 2018

The Integrity Pact was first introduced in the 1990s and since then has been applied across the world. A revival in 2015, including the implementation of a pilot project across 11 countries in the European Union, enabled a further update of the approach and for further lessons to emerge. These lessons include a better understanding of where the Pact might be applied to best effect as well as lessons on the internal workings of the Integrity Pact. It was on this basis that this guide was developed.

This guide is for civil society organisations (CSOs) interested in monitoring infrastructure projects. It describes how they can create an effective process to monitor publicly-financed infrastructure projects of public interest by adapting a Model Monitoring Agreement and Model Integrity Pact for Infrastructure (together known as “Model Agreements”).

The case for Integrity Pacts: Engaging civil society for better public procurement outcomes
Guidelines

The case for Integrity Pacts: Engaging civil society for better public procurement outcomes

1 Jan 2017

This publication covers the basics of Integrity Pacts and can be used as a tool for advocacy and awareness-raising.

The Business Case for Integrity Pacts: How Civil Society Monitoring Benefits You
Guidelines

The Business Case for Integrity Pacts: How Civil Society Monitoring Benefits You

1 Jan 2017

Why do companies need Integrity Pacts?

It’s all too common for companies to encounter corruption during public procurement processes. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Foreign Bribery Report states that 57 per cent of foreign bribery cases which it assessed related to public procurement.In the EU alone, corrupt bidding processes have increased annual contract costs by US$5 billion. The effects can be disastrous, including exposing companies to serious risks, such as:

  • missed business opportunities, as businesses are competing in a field that is distorted by bribery;
  • reputational damage, through association with corruption
  • potentially heavy fines, under laws which have a global impact, such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or the UK Anti-Bribery Act;
  • blacklisting and debarment from future bids (depending on jurisdiction).

A solution? Integrity Pacts.

Integrity Pacts bring a wealth of benefits to business including confidence in fair competition, protecting a company’s reputation, excluding corrupt competitors and acting as an important public signal of a company’s commitment to transparency and integrity.

Making the Case for Open Contracting in Healthcare Procurement
Guidelines

Making the Case for Open Contracting in Healthcare Procurement

1 Jan 2017

Healthcare and public procurement both suffer from high levels of corruption and the point at which they converge, procurement within healthcare, is an acute vulnerability that is routinely exploited. But governments and civil society organisations are now taking action to protect the lives of citizens by implementing open contracting.

The proposition behind open contracting is that procurement reform requires a broad base of participation from outside government. Businesses must be able to compete for contracts and make sense of the market. The communities directly affected by procurement, and the groups and people that represent those communities, are often better placed than government to independently monitor the procurement process.

To facilitate this participation, governments must publish useful, timely and accessible information about the procurement process. Healthcare and anti-corruption efforts share a common principle: prevention is better than cure. In the long term, open contracting offers a route for governments to move from the procurement status quo of corruption, waste and inefficiency, to clean contracting, in which fairness, integrity and efficiency are the norms.

This report first outlines some of the major challenges in healthcare procurement before explaining how open contracting works and how it can support reform. Section two introduces different approaches to open contracting that have been used around the world. Finally, section three presents case studies of successful implementation from Honduras, Nigeria and Ukraine.

The Case for Integrity Pacts: Engaging Civil Society for Better Public Procurement Outcomes
Global Corruption Report: Sport
Report

Global Corruption Report: Sport

1 Jan 2016·Transparency International

The Global Corruption Report (GCR) on sport is the most comprehensive analysis of sports corruption to date. It consists of more than 60 contributions from leading experts in the fields of corruption and sport, from sports organisations, governments, multilateral institutions, sponsors, athletes, supporters, academia and the wider anti-corruption movement.

Integrity Pacts: A How-To Guide from Practitioners
Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement: A Practical Guide
Guidelines

Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement: A Practical Guide

1 Jan 2014

This guide by Transparency International provides government officials, businesses and civil society with a practical introduction to the risks of corruption in public procurement. It outlines key principles and minimum standards which, when respected, can protect public contracting from corruption.

Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement: A Practical Guide
Guidelines

Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement: A Practical Guide

1 Jan 2014·Transparency International

This guide provides a basic introduction for government of officials, civil society groups and the private sector on eliminating corruption risks in public procurement. It is intended to inform and guide participants in public procurement, as well as civil society groups, on what can be done to strengthen the procurement process against corruption and its damaging effects.

Procurement is a complicated and sometimes opaque process, through which a large, if not the largest, percentage of public money is spent. Worldwide, procurement spending averages between 13 per cent and 20 per cent of gross domestic product. Every year an estimated average of US$9.5 trillion of public money is spent by governments through public procurement. With such vast sums at stake, few government activities create greater temptations or offer more opportunities for corruption than public sector procurement.

This guide sets out basic principles to be followed and minimum standards to be adopted by governments, which, in collaboration with the private sector, have the responsibility to ensure the full integrity of the public contracting process. Civil society can use the enumerated principles and minimum standards to advocate for steps to reduce corruption and waste in public contracting. This guide also emphasises and explains the important role that civil society organisations can play in the procurement process as monitors and watchdogs acting against corruption.

In addition, this guide identifies some critical issues in procurement processes that are often overlooked, and details steps that public of cials, the private sector and civil society can take, acting separately and together, to significantly curb corruption in public procurement.

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