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:

Together against Corruption provides the strategic framework for Transparency International’s (TI) collective ambition and actions for the years 2016-2020. The movement’s fourth strategy, it builds on the rich diversity of the TI movement, with its unique governance structure that includes independent national chapters, individual members and an international secretariat.

Recognising the local realities in which TI operates, this strategy does not intend to cover everything we do. Rather, it focuses on the key areas in which TI seeks to move forward collectively.

Customs administrations play an essential role in facilitating global trade while reinforcing integrity in cross-border exchanges of goods and services and collecting public revenue. Evidence shows that addressing lack of integrity in customs can create significant benefits for the public and private sectors, as well as society as a whole.

The OECD Foreign Bribery Report brings us, for the first time, face to face with our foe. This report endeavours to measure, and to describe, transnational corruption based on data from the 427 foreign bribery cases that have been concluded since the entry into force of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in 1999. We have learned that bribes are being paid across sectors to officials from countries at all stages of economic development.

Since the early 1990s, with the ever-increasing prospect of integration into the European Union, the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey have taken important steps to develop and strengthen their anti-corruption systems. Progress has been slow, however, and the implementation of laws and policies lags far behind what is envisaged on paper.

To help foster a high-integrity engineering and construction (E&C) industry across India, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), with the support of the US Department of Commerce and Fluor India, has convened an Engineering and Construction Expert Working Group with representation from a broad range of E&C and related industries, to develop a set of Principles for the Engineering & Construction Sector that promote a fair marketplace through ethical business conduct.

Corruption, particularly bribery of government officials, inflicts substantial damage on people, society, and the world, and warrants control. Collective efforts to control corruption tend to focus on rules and compliance with those rules. This paper suggests that collective action also consider the creation of strong ethical cultures in business firms. Implementation of such programs is impeded by the difficulty in prescribing a course of action and by the difficulty in measuring the strength of an ethical culture.

Nigeria is one of the most challenging countries to do business in as requests for cash and in-kind payments are very common. Many government agencies frequently make corrupt demands during port calls related to alleged irregularities of documentation (e.g. yellow fever certificates, crew contracts) or operations (e.g. ballast water discharge documentation, onboard practice in general).

This brochure, a joint work of the German Global Compact Network and the German Institute for Compliance (DICO), offers a series of concise and practical texts covering many areas around the topic of corruption prevention.

The Banknotes Ethics Initiative (BnEI) is an anti-corruption collective action initiative founded in 2013. It addresses the internal compliance standards of its members combined with a rigorous accreditation process administered by an external accreditation council.

The objectives of BnEI are also supported by 38 central banks, and now, some five years after its inception, the BnEI is picking up on one of its driving themes – ensuring fair competition in the procurement of banknotes.