Private Sector Must Fight Corruption

At the launch of the International Corruption Report in March this year, Reuben Lifuka, Vice President of Transparency International in Zambia urged the private sector to do more to curb bribery.

“Companies from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries must fulfil their obligations under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and stop paying bribes at home and abroad,” said Mr. Lifuka.

“With the spread of anti-bribery legislation, corporate governance and anti-corruption compliance codes, managers have no excuse for paying bribes,” he said.

A promising sign, he said, was the addition of a tenth anti-corruption principle to the UN Global Compact, signed by close to 2,000 international companies, and the endorsement of a public anti-corruption pledge by 63 companies from the energy, metals and mining, and engineering and construction sectors at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2005. The challenge now for companies is to enforce tough anti-bribery policies.
The scale of corruption is magnified by the size and scope of the construction sector, estimated globally at some US$3,200 billion per year. TI estimates that the amount lost due to bribery in contracting is at least 10 per cent of contract value, putting the figure of lost funds at more than US$300 billion per year worldwide.