The private sector plays a pivotal role in fighting corruption worldwide. Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report 2009 documents in unique detail the many corruption risks for businesses, ranging from small entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa to multinationals from Europe and North America.
This chapter appears in the Research handbook on corporate legal responsibility edited by Stephen Tully.
The ever-important topic of corporate legal responsibility is deconstructed into many multifaceted components in this fascinating Handbook, which systematically examines each in turn and describes the contemporary legal position.
Designing a High Level Reporting Mechanism for Business - A Guidance Note for Governments
This document provides general guidance to governments on how to develop and manage a High Level Reporting Mechanism (HLRM).
The HLRM is a tool that can:
Confronting Corruption
Corruption undermines nearly all key legal and developmental priorities today, including the effective functioning of democratic institutions and honest elections; environmental protection; human rights and human security; international development programs; and fair competition for global trade and investment.
New anti-corruption laws and intensified law enforcement, in particular in OECD Member States, are motivating companies to implement sound anti-corruption compliance programmes. They will help reduce risk, but they may also serve as a business argument. Yet, companies are increasingly voicing the need for a harmonised approach to compliance. The OECD Guidance enacted in 2010 may well serve as a template for such a standard since it has been adopted by the Member States of the OECD by unanimity.
Non-State Actors as Standard Setters
This analysis of 'globalised' standard-setting processes draws together insights from law, political sciences, sociology and social anthropology to assess the authority and accountability of non-state actors and the legitimacy and effectiveness of the processes. The essays offer new understandings of current governance problems, including environmental and financial standards, rules for military contractors and complex public-private partnerships, such as those intended to protect critical information infrastructure.
In this interview, Richard Bistrong, former international sales executive and current blogger and speaker on FCPA, compliance and anti-bribery issues, speaks with Sherbir Panag of MZM Legal, where they discuss bribery and anti-bribery compliance in India. Mr Panag stresses that despite very real corruption risks in the country, business in India is possible without bribery.
For companies to achieve this, an anti-bribery strategy must focus on knowing the challenge and preparing for it, and avoiding avenues of bribery.
By Patricia E. Dowden and Philip M. Nichols. This article was originally published by the Russian International Affairs Council on 25 December, 2014. Republished here with permission.
By Virna Di Palma, Director of the TRACE Anti-Bribery Specialist Accreditation and Senior Director of Global Strategy and Communications at TRACE International, an anti-bribery business organisation.
By Frederic Wehrlé