Did you know that public procurement — goods and services bought by governments — accounts for around one-fifth of global GDP? Or that in most high-income economies public procurement takes up a third of total public spending, and in developing countries even more – about half? These figures represent a significant share of national wealth…. Read More
When I visited Nairobi a few weeks ago, the signs of President Obama’s recent visit to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Summit were still clearly visible all around – from welcome posters to the spruced-up cityscape. I was in Kenya to work with CIPE’s partner organization, Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), on a training-of-trainers workshop devoted… Read More
Participants at Ethisphere’s 2014 Europe Ethics Summit. In today’s global business environment, corruption poses a risk that companies with operations around the world must understand and manage effectively. Those that do reap the benefits. As the Ethisphere Institute points out, the business case is clear: the five year annualized performance of the World’s Most Ethical… Read More
Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Kenya in a distant 136th place. That low ranking confirms the sentiment often encountered in Nairobi: corruption is widespread in many aspects of life, from bribing a policeman to avoid charges for alleged traffic violations to graft at the highest levels of government, as poignantly described by a British… Read More
In this 2011 file photo, a billboard is shown on the Rue Belliard in the European district of Brussels THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION/Maria Sanchez-Marin This post originally appeared on the Thomson Reuters TrustLaw blog. The European Union (EU) is taking a hard look at corruption in its midst, having recently published its first-ever corruption monitoring report. The… Read More
CIPE partner the Iraqi Businessmen Union leads a public-private dialogue session in Baghdad, Iraq. The Iraqi private sector continues to pursue steps towards building a modern market economy. Over recent decades, Iraq’s institutions supporting the economy became highly centralized as authoritarian rule sought to enhance state economic and political control. In Iraq today, government officials… Read More