World bank institute coalition launches business guide on
fighting corruption
A coalition of businesses, NGOs and international
organisations led by the World Bank Institute (WBI) produces a
practical business-oriented collective action guide and web
portal.
Recent research shows that global corruption can add as much as
20%- 25% to the costs of public procurement but many companies are
still faced with the dilemma of either paying bribes to win
business or withdrawing from high-risk markets.* However,
practical help is now at hand.
The World Bank Institute today released "Fighting Corruption
through Collective Action - A Guide for Business." Created to help
companies fight back against the insidious impacts of
corruption, the Guide, and its companion web portal, outlines
proven methods to fight marketplace corruption through Collective
Action between business and other stakeholders.
Organised by the World Bank Institute, the coalition is made up
of NGOs and multilateral organisations including Grant Thornton
member firms in UK, Canada and USA, Siemens, United Nations Global
Compact, Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE),
Transparency International and Global Advice Network.
"The purpose of this guide is to establish a level playing field
and assist firms who would otherwise have to abandon doing business
in a corrupt environment", says Djordjija Petkoski, Programme
Leader, WBI. "It should become a staple component of a company's
approach to promoting ethics and to managing the risk of fraud and
corruption. Equally, the guide should also be of interest to
enlightened governments and other organisations which share the
goals of eliminating corruption from business dealings."
"Companies are rightly concerned about the costly damage to
their brand and reputation if they become associated with bribery
and other forms of corruption. This guide will prove invaluable to
business and compliance managers and not just in multinational
companies but small and medium sized enterprises as well," says
Sterl Greenhalgh, Head of Corporate Fraud Investigations at Grant
Thornton UK and one of the members of the collective action guide
working group.
Collective Action in practise
This toolkit and interactive web portal provide multiple options
to combat corporate corruption based on proven “how-to” examples
from many regions and sectors. Cases from Ecuador, Germany, Mexico,
Pakistan and other countries are detailed in the guide.
The guide and web portal will be launched at the ICC -
Commercial Crime Services annual seminar in London later today.
Through the portal, the World Bank Institute-led group will
continue to support and report upon the use of collective action
going forward.