Tag Archives | Private sector

Corruption and UK businesses: Why we need the bribery act

Tetraethyl lead – a compound used in leaded petrol – was a major source of income for the international chemical firm, Innospec, before health and environmental concerns led to its abolishment in the US and Europe more than ten years ago. The poisonous chemical – which has been proven to stunt the mental development of […]

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Prosecuting bribers: Canada (finally) steps up to the plate

Last month, Canada was the worst performing G7 country in Transparency International’s OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Progress Report. James M. Klotz, President of Transparency International Canada, writes about the country’s landmark first foreign bribery case. Until recently Canada had a dismal record of enforcing its anti-corruption legislation. In the 12 years since the Corruption of Foreign […]

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The very questionable case for good corruption

François Valérian, the head of private sector programmes at Transparency International has written a post for the blog of our colleagues at the Task Force for Financial Integrity and Economic Development. Here’s what he writes: “A Wall Street Journal article and a BBC program have recently discussed the potential merits of corruption. This seemingly provocative […]

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Corporate responsibility and anti-corruption – Is there a case for greater integration?

It’s impossible these days not to notice the steady stream of news coverage on bribery and corruption scandals from the pages of financial papers like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times into mainstream media and the blogosphere. Bribery allegations, prosecutions and record-setting fines, many of which involve corporate titans, are reported in the press […]

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Can bribes paid by private firms cause “social damage”?

Yes! It is possible that firm pays for the damages caused to a society at large when caught bribing governmental officials! This is the case now in Costa Rica where Alcatel-Lucent, the French-American communications company, agreed to pay US $10 million to the Costa Rican State as a compensation for the “social damage” provoked to […]

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Anti-corruption conventions: A new fight

The anti-corruption movement and its partners are readying for their next battle in the fight against abuses and the disregard for transparency, integrity and accountability.  Yet the location is not in a boardroom or in parliament, but in a convention centre in Doha, Qatar. Here, representatives from governments and civil society will be convening discussions […]

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Cartelisation: blue collar corruption

The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Transparency International. “Our competitors are our friends, our customers are the enemy” is an actual statement made by an executive of Archer Daniel Midland, in the famous case of the lysine (a feed additive) […]

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2009 Global Corruption Report: Corruption and the Private Sector

When asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, a 6-year old girl said she wanted to be a corrupt official, because they have so many things. After recovering from the shock of the little girl’s answer, the next question that arises is: how is it that these officials can accumulate so many […]

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What is ‘lobbying’ and its link to corruption?

Back-corridor negotiation on proposed legislation is a practice that runs from Brasília to Washington, Bruxelles to ar-Rabāṭ. However, the relationships between policy-makers and interest groups walk a fine ethical line that separates participatory democracy from state capture. Striking legislative deals are generally considered to be just one part of broader lobbying efforts undertaken by groups […]

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What is a ‘conflict of interest’?

The financial crisis is awash in so many specialised terms that their sheer number seems to rival the amount of bail-out money being doled out to shore up the faltering economy. One word that is constantly being bounced around, from the Bundestag to the White House, from Wall Street to High Street, is ‘conflict of […]

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