Bribery Index

International Anti-Corruption Day, 2008. Today, 9^th December, is International Anti-Corruption Day. Transparency International has released the 2008 Bribe Payers Index. This survey reveals that companies based in China, India, Russia and Italy are more likely to engage in bribery when doing business abroad than are companies from other leading exporting nations. Companies based in such countries are routinely engaged in bribery when doing business abroad.

The survey also reveals that public works and construction companies may be the most corruption-prone when dealing with the public sector. They are the most likely to exert undue influence on the policies, decisions and practices of governments.

Public officials and managers of State-owned enterprises must be particularly careful in avoiding corrupt transactions when dealing with companies from those countries.

Perhaps the clearest thinking and writing on the subject has come from Transparency International of Trinidad and Tobago. Their website reminds us that political corruption affects us all. Citizens of three out of four countries polled by Transparency International and Gallup International in 2003 and 2004 singled out political parties as the institution they perceived as most corrupt.

Government must put in place the system of checks and balances that the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago promised when he laid in Parliament the White Paper on the Reform of the Public Sector Procurement Regime.

Public and private sector executives must make corruption prevention as much a priority in their organizations as health and safety.

See previous posts on the need to enhance procurement integrity in Anguilla.