The Fight Against Corruption: Government and Business Step Up to the Plate

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Apr 16, 2010, 12:15 ET

NEW YORK, April 16 /PRNewswire/ -- New allegations of corporate fraud make headlines almost weekly, but global anti-corruption efforts in both public and private sectors are finally intensifying, says a report issued by The Conference Board, the global business research and membership association.

Two decades after passage of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977, government and business in the United States and elsewhere are getting much more proactive about curbing corruption, states A New Era in Global Anti-Corruption: Governments Get Serious about Enforcement. The report, co-authored by Andrea Bonime-Blanc and Mark Brzezinski, is part of The Conference Board Executive Action series, in which authors are invited to educate and provoke thought and debate on current business issues. Executive Action reports are exclusively for The Conference Board member companies. Their content reflects the views of the authors and not necessarily those of The Conference Board.

"Governments and private companies are now battling corruption with the critical help of the non-governmental community, think tanks and academia," says Paul DeNicola, director of The Conference Board Governance Center. "The Internet has become a game-changing factor in the growth of anti-corruption awareness and accessibility to information, especially via social networking tools."

An Obama Administration surge in FCPA enforcement has produced a buzz among corporate executives that the old ways of doing business with "a wink and a nod" are over, and that business decisions taken years ago may result in serious liability now, the report states. Meanwhile, countries such as China, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are also increasingly launching anti-corruption investigations and prosecutions.

"The process of combating corruption must extend not only within companies and governments but across industries and borders," says Bonime-Blanc, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary of Daylight Forensic & Advisory LLC, and vice chair of The Conference Board Global Council on Business Conduct. "Achieving this goal will require a more concerted and integrated approach to fighting corruption and I believe that over the next decade we will see just that with more coordinated thought and action emerging from three principal sectors: governments, business and the NGO/think tank community."

As examples of progress, the report cites the OECD's "Good Practice Guidance on Internal Controls, Ethics, and Compliance," private-sector group initiatives such as the World Economic Forum's Partnering against Corruption Initiative (PACI), and, within companies, a proliferation of corporate compliance programs and global codes of conduct in the last decade.

"Corruption is the scourge of economic development, is correlated to more authoritarian and despotic regimes, and diverts goods and services to favor the few over the many," says Brzezinski, an international law partner at McGuire Woods LLP. "U.S. law enforcement is also sending the message that companies cannot do business one way in America, and another way in the developing world. This global approach to the enforcement of standards is essential if we want international commerce to have a foundation based on fair competition and rule of law."

Source: A New Era in Global Anti-Corruption: Governments Get Serious about Enforcement

Executive Action #325, April 2010, The Conference Board

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is a global, independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States.

SOURCE The Conference Board