The recently published Global Mapping of Anti-Corruption Authorities fills a critical gap in information about national anti-corruption authorities (ACAs) around the world. ACAs are key institutions to prevent and combat corruption, but until now centralised data on their mandates, activities and even existence has been lacking.

The global disruption from covid-19 to health and economic systems has magnified risks to preserving business integrity that will have longstanding impact. As a result, the pandemic is drawing significant attention to several of the world’s largest Collective Action initiatives that are reinforcing ethical business conduct in healthcare. The timing and actions of these initiatives could not be more critical in our crisis recovery efforts.

In this guest article, Duncan Smith and Dominik Adamski of the European Investment Bank's Fraud Investigations Team explain how risk-based Proactive Integrity Reviews have helped to uncover vulnerabilities and fraud risks in EIB-funded projects. The General Principles are available for anyone to adapt and use.

Integrity risks for businesses trading overseas have shot up due to the pandemic. Anti-corruption and human rights compliance approaches designed to protect companies during “business as usual” can come under strain in these unusual circumstances.

How can companies – especially smaller companies with limited resources – protect themselves from integrity risks in these times of crisis? There are no easy answers, but it’s important to talk about the questions.

The Banknote Ethics Initiative (BnEI) has made great strides since 2013 in promoting the highest standards of integrity and fair competition in the banknote sector. Now it's one of the first business-led initiatives to promote Integrity Pacts as a tool to safeguard banknote-related procurement from corruption risks.

The high level of confidentiality needed in this sector adds an extra challenge to the mix. The BnEI's Chairman, Antti Heinonen, gives a short insight into the project in the text below, which also appears in our 2019 Annual Report:

Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) can now benefit from half-price packages for our supercharged open-source search tool, Basel Open Intelligence.

Covid-19 lockdowns haven’t stopped crime and corruption, but they make it harder for compliance officers to do their jobs. This is especially true for SMEs, where corruption risks remain high but resources for compliance are more likely to be squeezed.