Anchored in the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, this report is about using better corporate governance to fight corporate misconduct. The report takes stock of corporate practices tying business integrity considerations into corporate governance frameworks, strategy and operations. It also assesses what factors influence business decisions to implement business integrity measures in practice. 

This report focuses on:

Control of corruption in a society is an equilibrium between resources and costs which either empowers or constraints elites predatory behavior. While most research and practice focuses on legal constraints, this paper investigates normative constraints, deemed to be more important, especially civil society and the press. Fresh evidence—both historical and statistical—is found to support Tocqueville’s assertions regarding the importance of collective action and the joint action of media and associations in not only creating a democratic society, but controlling corruption as well.

Although both the problem of corruption and its detrimental effects on society, economy, and environment has widely been recognized, corruption remains one of the most challenging problems of today. In light of globalization, the exclusive focus on compliance-oriented measures such as sharpening laws seems to be more and more ineffective. 

The criminal justice system (CJS) is the ballast to a nation’s stability. By enforcing the rule of law, the police, courts and corrections provide citizens with security. However, when the system becomes so riddled with corruption, what was meant to be a protector becomes a predator. In many fragile states, the CJS is just that – another threat to the average citizen and a resource that the wealthy and powerful use to maintain their position.

This study presents an initial overview of key classifications of Collective Action initiatives, which it illustrates with a number of case studies from G20 countries and beyond, as well as regional and global projects.

It was commissioned by the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group and prepared on behalf of the B20 Task Force on Improving Transparency and Anti-Corruption