Beyond Company Compliance: Collective Action Against Corruption

There is a growing interest in what the private sector can do to fight corruption. In part, it is driven by the increased enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the new UK anti-bribery laws. They are leading companies to strengthen their compliance programs, important in their own right.

Yet, as the experience of IKEA in Russia shows – compliance is not enough. Ikea had a zero tolerance policy against bribery and a rather strong compliance program, but the corrupt environment proved too difficult to overcome. Operating in highly corrupt countries (i.e. many of emerging and developing markets according to TI’s corruption perceptions index) presents a unique set of risks and challenges that can’t be addressed only by saying no to corruption.

So what can be done to complement strong compliance programs? John Sullivan and I look at some solutions – collective action against corruption and the role of business associations – in this article published in the Ethisphere magazine.

Originally posted at CIPE Development Blog