TI is the world’s number one authority on corruption. TI has just released its most recent report. For full details, please CLICK HERE. Summaries of past years’s results are also found in the details. Details as to how TI analyzes and scrutinizes are found in separate reports. The full report is 493 pages. It covers corruption in government and private sectors. It analyzes in great detail 180 nations, using over 1000 graphs and tables. It can be downloaded free of charge or bought as a book. The Global Corruption Report 2009 is published by Cambridge University Press (ISBN-13: 978-0-521-13240-4). You can order Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report 2009 ($40.00/ £23.99 excluding delivery) from Cambridge University Press, online at www.cambridge.org, by phoning +44 (0) 1223 326050 or writing to: directcustserve@cambridge.org. You can also order the GCR through your local bookshop by quoting ISBN-13: 978-0-521-13240-4 and through online booksellers (e.g. at www.amazon.com).
Individual companies in the Fortune Global have many reasons to develop a Code of Ethics. In 1970, only 3% of them had a C of E. By 2000, 50% had such a Code. Today, 86% have Codes. The most important is to comply with lega obligations. Runners-up are:
? limiting liability in the event of accidents;
? limiting government initiatives to create new legislation;
? creating a positive, shared company culture;
? protecting and enhancing a company’s reputation; and
? improving staff behaviour and corporate social responsibility.
The USA leads the way in requiring corporations to disclose executive remuneration. In Europe, high disclosure policies exist in the U.K., Ireland, Netherlands and France. Medium requirements are found in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Norway. Low disclosure is in Finland, Spain, Portugal and Denmark. Giving shareholders a stronger voice in deciding executive pay has been pioneered in the United Kingdom.
In Asia, as you would expect, few laws require disclosure of how a director’s compensation is evaluated. Among the worst are Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines and Vietnam. The best are in Taiwan and Indonesia. Survey of 13 nations.
Whistle blowing – Employees are the single most important group of actors capable of detecting corporate fraud. In Western Europe, 32% of companies in countries use whistle blowing and 78% report it is effective. In N. America, the percentages are 77% and 96%. In Central and East Europe – 34% and 79%. In S and C America – 46 and 81%. Asia/Pacific – 55 and 94%. Africa – 88 and 74%. [SG: Clearly, all these percentages from top to bottom are overblown.]
Data is provided for bribery of public officials, officials of international organizations, members of parliamentary assemblies, judges and officials of international courts. Also for illicit enrichment,diversion of monies,securities, property, omissions/acts in discharge of duties by public officials, trading in influence, transparency in funding of political parties, accounting offences, bank secrecy, and laundering of proceedings. [SG: So far as I could tell, no data is available on police corruption.] InAustria, France,Italy andSpain, statutory limitations on crime are too short. In Australia, Ireland, Italy, and S. Korea, penalties are too low. There are no liability requirements for legal persons in Argentina, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece,Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, U.K. No adequate definition of foreign bribery in Canada, Chile, Ireland or Spain.
Without enforcement, good rules are worthless. One way to measure is via staff for the public enforcement of securities regulation. A sample of the good and bad: USA has 25 per million of the population. U.K. has 18. S. Korea has 13. France -6. Japan -5. Germany – 5. Brazil – 3. India – 1. Budget for public enforcement is another measure. Highest per billion US dollars as a percentage of GDP is S. Africa. USA and U.K. are middle-of-the-road. Germany and Japan hardly bother.
The overall corruption index ranking for selected nations follows:
Countries on same line are tied.
1 Denmark – New Zealand – Sweden
4 Singapore
5 Finland – Switzerland
7 Iceland – Netherlands
9 Australia – Canada
11 Luxembourg
12 Austria – Hong Kong
14 Germany – Norway
16 Ireland – United Kingdom
18 Belgium – Japan – United States
The bottom of the barrel:
166 Cambodia – Kyrgyzstan – Turkmenistan – Uzbekistan – and
Zimbabwe
171 Congo, Democratic Republic – Equatorial Guinea
173 Chad – Guinea – Sudan
176 Afghanistan
177 Haiti
178 Iraq – Myanmar
180 Somalia
Corruption perceptions range from 10 to 0. Somalia scored 1. The Big Three scored 9.3.
Bribery corruption was scored individually. The best countries are Belgium, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany with scores ranging from 8.8 to 8.6. The USA finished 9th with 8.1. Only 26 countries were scored because they were selected on the basis of their trade and FDI flows. The combined global imports of goods and services and inflows of Foreign Direct Investment of the
twenty-six countries represented 54 per cent of the world total in 2006.
The adoption of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (OECD Anti-Bribery Convention) in 1997 was a landmark event in the fight against international corruption: a collective commitment by governments of the leading industrialised states to address the supply side of corruption and ban foreign bribery. Because most major multinational companies are based in OECD countries, the
convention was hailed as the key to overcoming the damaging effects of foreign bribery on democratic institutions, development programmes and business competition. There are now
thirty-seven countries that are party to the convention and subject to the requirement to criminalize foreign bribery.
[SG: OECD = Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.]
