Implementing Anticorruption Programs in the Private Sector
Although attention has focused on public sector initiatives to fight corruption on the demand side, private companies in every region have developed programs to fight it on the supply side. Policymakers and advocacy groups-such as Transparency Inte...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/04/2016285/implementing-anticorruption-programs-private-sector http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11353 |
| Summary: | Although attention has focused on public
sector initiatives to fight corruption on the demand side,
private companies in every region have developed programs to
fight it on the supply side. Policymakers and advocacy
groups-such as Transparency International-consider such
preventive efforts to be a critical component of the
anticorruption toolkit. All types of firms-large and small,
multinational and local-recognize that corruption raises the
cost of doing business and should be prevented. Most company
anticorruption programs rely on compliance systems that
consist of a company code of conduct, training, and
decisionmaking and reporting mechanisms. This self
regulatory approach was pioneered in the 1970s by U.S.
multinational corporations after unethical practices were
revealed and in response to the 1977 Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act. Until recently this approach was greeted with
skepticism outside the United States. Critics argued that
efforts to implement U.S. compliance-based techniques would
fail in other business cultures. Skeptics also questioned
the effectiveness of company anticorruption programs. But
such views have changed considerably in recent years, and
compliance systems are being implemented by companies from
high-income countries as well as emerging markets. Moreover,
anticorruption techniques have become more sophisticated in
established U.S. systems. |
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