Private Sector

Corruption in the business sector is widespread, and can take many forms. Companies may pay bribes or rig bids to win public procurement contracts, hide corrupt acts behind secret subsidiaries and partnerships, seek to unduly influence political decision-making, exploit tax laws, construct cartels or abuse legal loopholes. Where corrupt business practices occur, they distort markets and create unfair competition, undermining sustainable economic growth, the rule of law, the environment and human rights.

There are strong incentives for companies to fight corruption. Taking into account the cost of bribery and sanctions for bribery, the potential impact of internal fraud and of reputational damages, companies benefit from establishing effective anti-corruption programmes as a way to mitigate the reputational, legal, operational and financial risks of corruption.

TI’s Business Integrity Programme seeks to improve the transparency, accountability and integrity in business practises worldwide. Together with our network of chapters, we tackle the problem from different angles: Based on our Business Principles for Countering Bribery and the 10 Anti-Corruption Principles for State-owned Enterprises, we work with companies to help them improve their corporate risk management and become more accountable to their stakeholders. But companies also need a clean operating environment, so we conduct studies to increase Transparency in Corporate Reporting (TRAC) at national and international level. Other tools focus on initiating collective action to achieve a level playing field for business, for example the “Integrity Pacts” which address corruption in procurement, or the “Business Integrity Country Agenda” (BICA) which analyses the business integrity framework in a given country and builds momentum for reform. And finally, we are engaging with business-focused international fora – such as the B20, the UN Global Compact and the WEF Partnering Against Corruption Initiative – to advocate for high anti-corruption standards at the global level.

For further information, see the Transparency International's Business Integrity Programme.