El sector privado utiliza el soborno para influir en las políticas públicas, las leyes y las reglamentaciones, opinan más de la mitad de los encuestados en el Barómetro Global de la Corrupción 2009.. El Barómetro, una encuesta de opinión pública difundida hoy por Transparency International (TI), reveló que la mitad de los encuestados están dispuestos a pagar una cantidad adicional para adquirir productos y servicios de empresas libres de corrupción. “Estos resultados reflejan un público sensibilizado por una crisis financiera precipitada por reglamentaciones deficientes y falta de responsabilidad corporativa”, señaló Huguette Labelle, Presidente de Transparency International. “Pero también notamos que el público está dispuesto a respaldar activamente a las empresas transparentes. Lo esencial ahora es que las compañías tomen medidas audaces para seguir fortaleciendo sus políticas y prácticas, y que divulguen información más transparente sobre sus finanzas e interacción con gobiernos”. El Barómetro, con más de 73.000 encuestados en 69 países y territorios, también demuestra que una cantidad desproporcionada de la exigencia de soborno recae sobre los sectores pobres. La encuesta también comprobó que, además del alto nivel de corrupción percibido en los partidos políticos, el parlamento o cuerpo legislativo y la administración pública, las medidas gubernamentales para combatir la corrupción suelen ser consideradas inefectivas. Versión en Inglés y Francés disponibles en la Sección Documentos.

Corruption is everywhere. Countries worldwide, from the richest to the poorest, are infected by it. But the culture of corruption can vary tremendously from place to place. Until we understand this culture, nothing can be done to change it. The Corruption Notebooks are stories told by local journalists of the daily struggle to rein in graft and protect the public interest. The authors are among the world's best journalists, examining the politics of their home countries as no one else can.

"Transparency and Developing Legal Frameworks to Combat Corruption in Latin America" by Patricio Maldonado and Gerardo Berthin. Southwestern Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas. Volume X, 2004 No. 2

Lessons Learned in the Implementation of the Guatemala Declaration:   A Case of the Software Missing the Hardware? by Gerardo Berthin, Casals & Associates, Inc.Paper presented at the 13th International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC):  Global Transparency, Fighting Corruption for a Sustainable Future Workshop 1.2: Lessons Learned in the Implementation of the “Guatemala Declaration” For a Region Free of Corruption  Athens, Greece October 30, 2008 

This article offers an analytical framework to envision the design and implementation of transparency and anticorruption policies.  To that end, the article presents an argument and various elements that can serve as reference for the design and implementation of high impact transparency and anticorruption policies at all branches and levels of government.  The article also suggests several good governance principles to move forward with new thinking, and makes recommendations to improve the operative dimension of transparency and anticorruption policies. The article is based on real experiences and applied knowledge, and is written in a format that is oriented to encourage practice and action.

The private sector uses bribes to influence public policy, laws and regulations, believe over half of those polled for 2009 Global Corruption Barometer. The Barometer, a global public opinion survey released today by Transparency International (TI), also found that half of respondents expressed a willingness to pay a premium to buy from corruption-free companies. “These results show a public sobered by a financial crisis precipitated by weak regulations and a lack of corporate accountability,” said Transparency International Chair, Huguette Labelle. “But we also see that the public is willing to actively support clean business. What is needed now is bold action by companies to continue strengthening their policies and practices, and to report more transparently on finances and interactions with government.” The Barometer, with more than 73,000 respondents drawn from 69 countries and territories around the world, also found the poor to be disproportionately burdened by bribe demands. And it found that government efforts to combat corruption are generally perceived as ineffective, in addition to high levels of perceived corruption in political parties, parliaments and the civil service. Spanish and French versions available at Documents Section.

Diagnóstico y Líneas Programáticas para Promover la Transparencia a Nivel Local en El Salvador

What impact does corruption have on enjoyment of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights? When can human rights principles and tools help to curb and prevent corruption?In recent years, governments, NGOs and international organisations have taken many initiatives to fight corruption. However, these efforts have rarely been analysed from the point of view of human rights, despite their potential and relevance. Using a conceptual framework for assessing when particular acts of corruption violate human rights, this report shows how organisations can promote human rights while working to end corruption.Appraisals:"Outstanding contribution to knowledge and information on these topics."Frank Vogl, Co-founder and Board Member, Transparency International"The report will help to establish a community of practice, and will encourage the collection and dissemination of anticorruption learning. Most importantly, the paper will be a helpful reference to engage both governmental and non-governmental actors in a dialogue on human rights and anticorruption policy issues."Gerardo Berthin, Senior Governance Advisor, Casals & Associates Inc. "This report gives a clear illustration of what corruption really means and represents and what implications and damage corruption may cause in the field of human rights and, inevitably, for the society at large."Ramiz Huremagic, Criminologist

The guide is the result of discussions within the TI movement and consultations in six countries - Bangladesh, Kenya, Lebanon, Romania, South Korea and Zambia - that included stakeholders from government, business, civil society and the media. Drawing from these contributions, a list of 45 terms was compiled accompanied by definitions and practical examples. Each term has been chosen for its influential role in defining and shaping the work of TI, and is open to continued debate and revision.

Plus de la moitié des personnes interrogées dans le cadre du Baromètre mondial de la corruption 2009 estime que le secteur privé a recours à des pratiques de corruption pour influencer les politiques publiques, la législation et les dispositions réglementaires. Publié aujourd’hui par Transparency International (TI), le Baromètre, sondage de l’opinion publique à l’échelle mondiale, a également révélé que la moitié des personnes interrogées se déclarait disposée à payer plus cher pour acheter des biens et des services auprès d’entreprises non corrompues. « Ces résultats montrent un public désabusé par une crise financière précipitée par la faiblesse des réglementations et par le manque de responsabilité des entreprises » a déclaré Huguette Labelle, présidente de Transparency International. « Mais l’on voit également que le public est prêt à soutenir activement les entreprises saines. Il faut à présent que les entreprises prennent des mesures ambitieuses visant à renforcer leurs politiques et leurs pratiques, et à communiquer de façon plus transparente en ce qui concerne leur situation financière et leurs relations avec les pouvoirs publics. » Réalisé auprès de plus de 73 000 personnes dans 69 pays et territoires du monde entier, le Baromètre a également révélé que les pauvres étaient confrontés de façon disproportionnée aux demandes de pots-de-vin. Outre le niveau élevé de perception de la corruption au sein des partis politiques, des instances parlementaires et de la fonction publique, le sondage montre par ailleurs que les mesures engagées par les pouvoirs publics pour lutter contre la corruption sont généralement considérées inefficaces.

Since 1989 the OECD has played a leading role in the battle against inter-national bribery and corruption. The fight gathered momentum in 1999 with the entry into force of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The Convention is open to accession by any country that first becomes a full participant in the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions in accordance with its procedures, and that is willing and able to assume the obligations of the Convention. Signatories currently include all 29 OECD Members and five non-Members (Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile and the Slovak Republic). As of June 2000, 21 signatories had ratified the Convention. (See website www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption (http://www1oecd.org/daf/nocorruption) for dates of deposit of instruments of ratification.) The Convention represents the result of an ambitious undertaking that began with the development by the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions of various instruments – the Recom-mendations of 1994, 1996 and 1997 – and culminated with the entry into force of the Convention. The overall purpose of these instruments is to prevent bribery in international business transactions by requiring countries to establish the criminal offence of bribing a foreign public official, and to have in place adequate sanctions and reliable means for detecting and enforcing the offence. They also include non-criminal rules for prevention, overall transparency and co-operation between countries. In addition, parties are also required to deny the tax deductibility of such bribes. The OECD takes a multifaceted approach to fighting bribery, recognising that tackling both the supply and the demand side of the bribery transaction requires different measures. It recognises that reducing the supply of bribes requires more than criminalising the act of bribing a foreign public official. Businesses themselves must play a role, and address the practice internally by changing the corporate culture that enables it to continue. To provide businesses with guidance in this regard, the OECD has revised the 1976 Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises to include a new chapter on the measures that should be taken by enterprises to prevent the furnishing (as well as the solicitation) of bribes. In addition, the provisions in the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance on improving disclosure and transparency in financial as well as other matters provide a framework that discourages bribery. The demand side of bribery has also been addressed by certain OECD ini-iatives. For instance, the 1998 OECD Council Recommendation on Improving Ethical Conduct in Public Service calls on Member countries to take steps to ensure well-functioning institutions and systems for promoting ethical conduct in the public service. The OECD Public Management Committee (PUMA), recently sent to the OECD Ministerial Council a report on the implementation of the Recommendation, including methods for detecting, investigating, prosecuting and penalising misconduct by public officials. SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management) – a joint initiative of the OECD and the European Union, principally financed by EU – advises Central and Eastern European countries on improving accountability, efficiency, management and transparency in the public administration. In addition, the Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions is studying ways of incorporating demand side issues into its agenda, and has already held several meetings with the private sector for this purpose. Moreover, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, which includes most OECD Members as well as some key financial centres outside the OECD, addresses both the supply and the demand sides of bribery by addressing the illegal laundering of bribes and proceeds deriving from bribery and corruption. OECD Member countries cannot effectively control corruption on their own. Through the Centre for Co-operation with Non-Members (CCNM), the OECD promotes initiatives on both the supply and demand sides to engage non-Members in the fight against bribery and corruption. For developing countries specifically, anti-corruption initiatives are carried out by the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and the OECD Development Centre.

This document has been issued jointly by the following organizations: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Financial Executives International, Information Systems Audit and Control Association, Institute of Internal Auditors, Institute of Management Accountants, and the Society for Human Resource Management.

Transparency International calls on governments to assess whether countries are taking adequate action to fulfill their obligations under the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). This report discusses recommendations for setting up a review mechanism for the UNCAC. Propositions include opening the process to “civil society and the private sector” and funding the review through the UN regular budget.

This report describes research on the problem of corruption in humanitarian assistance, carried out in 2007 and 2008 by the Feinstein International Center of Tufts University (FIC) in collaboration with the Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG) at the Overseas Development Institute in London (ODI) and the sponsoring organization, Transparency International (TI). Seven major international humanitarian NGOs volunteered to be part of the project and allowed researchers access to their headquarters staff and documentation along with similar access to field programs in seven crisis affected countries.

INTRODUCTIONHaving a communications component is not just an option for an organization or institution looking to implement an effective anti-corruption strategy; it is a must.  Communications efforts should not be carried out by simply implementing sporadic individual activities that are not tied to a broader plan. Rather, they must be conducted in a sustained and strategic manner. Each initiative must be linked to a specific communications objective, aimed at a target audience and must transmit a particular key message through the use of proper channels or tools.    Among those involved in the anti-corruption battle, it is common knowledge that promoting public awareness is a central component to advancing the cause. A main objective is amplifying the message on a wider scale in order to generate greater interest and involvement from the general public on the initiatives carried out. What is sometimes not so commonly recognized is that developing and implementing a strategic communications plan is vital and necessary for accomplishing that goal. Although most organizations are aware of the importance of conducting public awareness campaigns, rarely do they recognize the need to develop them within a strategic communications planning process that involves a series of steps to select the best possible course of action. Furthermore, a comprehensive communications strategy should include an internal and external communications component. An organization that does not have a well-tuned internal communications plan will, at best, rarely achieve an effective and sustained external communications campaign and at worst, set the ground for a potential communications crisis.  This paper will focus on the important and indispensable role communications plays in the effective implementation of an anti-corruption strategy. It does so by putting forth examples as to the added benefit it yields in this area. The document will define communications within the anti-corruption field and outline the principal components of an anti-corruption communications strategy. It will also explain the differences between internal and external communications as well as lay out the components for each. Special attention is given to defining and explaining how to develop and deliver key messages given their importance in a communications campaign. In addition, the paper provides examples of channels and tools that can be used in implementing a communications strategy.

Adopted October 31, 2003 and entered into force on December 14, 2005, the United Nations Convention against Corruption requires countries to establish criminal offences against corruption, implement policies to promote transparency and accountability, and cooperate internationally to prevent, investigate, and prosecute offenders.

C&A Senior Technical Advisor, Thusitha Pilapitiya, presents "Creating the Institutional Support for Successful Anti-Corruption Campaigns" at the "Global Transparency: Fighting corruption for a sustainable future" 13th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Athens, Greece (October, 2008)Executive SummaryThere are a number of elements necessary for a successful anti-corruption campaign. Creating institutional support for the campaign is one of these critical elements.  Getting the message across to the masses that corruption is evil, and must be resisted at all times, without preparing the institutions and public officials who run them on how to receive and act on complaints of corruption is like conducting a massive advertising campaign for a particular product before the product is freely available on all market shelves.In an era of limited resources and even donor fatigue, it is imperative to maximize donor and indeed government resources that are used to fight corruption. As intense anti-corruption activities have now been ongoing for over two decades, and awareness campaigns have been run in almost every country in the world, one can surmise that the ordinary citizen is aware that corruption is to be resisted. Therefore, it is now necessary to accompany the message that corruption is bad, immoral, the cost of a corrupt act is far more than the simple bribe paid, affects the economy and growth of a country, with messages on how and where to report instances of corruption, and what a citizen can expect government and non-government institutions to do about such complaints, and the accused officials. The awareness campaign must therefore, not only contain information of what constitutes an act of corruption, but also what the citizen must do when faced with such corruption. To prevent corruption, there must also be strong institutions to accept complaints and act on them.  Messaging must include not only awareness but also how to report and act when faced with corruption. If people are encouraged to report, but they don’t know how to report and where to report, the messaging loses its effectiveness. Therefore, institutions such as anti-corruption bureaus must be fully operational so that people who try to report are not disillusioned when they find out they cannot report, or nothing is done when they do report.If the public messaging encourages reporting, there must also be serious safeguards against those who report. Whistleblower Protection Acts must be in place. The messaging will be meaningless if someone who reports as a result of the messaging is hurt in any way by officials. Applying the principles of the human rights based approach to development, public awareness campaigns must be accompanied by training programs for all duty bearers, i.e. those who have a duty to provide corrupt-free services to the public. Therefore, a public awareness campaign will not succeed in isolation, if duty bearers are also not trained on their duties and the rights of those who approach them for services.At the same time, public awareness campaigns that create bottom up pressures are extremely useful to also create political will and administrative support for the fight against corruption. It is now accepted by everyone that political will is a necessary component for creating institutional space. Condoning of officials guilty of any form of corruption by the political leaders can neutralize the most well thought of anti-corruption campaign. Therefore, understanding of and support by political leaders of a campaign is essential. Political will is treated as a cross cutting theme in this paper as this applies to the whole concept of institutional support.International conventions and donors often require developing countries to establish Anti corruption bureaus. Establishing these institutions without the complete commitment of the executive does not help in realistically achieving anti-corruption objectives. Therefore, there needs to be political will at the highest level in establishing such institutions. At least in theory such political will could be created by popular support. Democratic leaders depend on the good will of the populace to be elected, stay in power, and be re-elected. Public awareness campaigns can help the citizens to compel such commitment from their leaders especially when supported by civil society mechanisms and media.Applying the principles of the Human Rights Approach to Development as defined by the United Nations, the awareness campaign must not only target citizens or right holders but also prepare the officials and institutions who are the duty bearers having a duty to not only serve citizens without resorting to rent seeking, but also help those who have been affected by corrupt duty bearers or officials.A close examination of the United Nations Convention on Anti Corruption (UNCAC) would reveal that each section places a duty on officials to provide corrupt free services, and on citizens not to succumb to corruption. As such, anti corruption campaigns must also take in to account that not only citizens but institutions too should be ready to act upon such campaigns.In some countries civil society mechanisms are weak and media not well developed. In such instances, international assistance can be used to strengthen civil society and media so that political will can be created or strengthened according to the situation in each country.

Fighting Corruption, Enhancing Performance and Assuring Accountability XI OLACEFS Assembly Panama City, Panama, August 22, 2001 David M. Walker, CPA Comptroller General of the United States

A Users’ Guide to Measuring Corruption is one of the first attempts to systematically explore the practical challenges and opportunities of measuring what is increasingly viewed as one of the major impediments to development: corruption. Based on a review of the literature and bolstered by more than 30 original interviews with experts in the field, A Users’ Guide provides government, civil society and the private sector with examples of “good practices” in measuring corruption. (For more information see http://www.globalintegrity.org) UPDATE: Due to enthusiastic demand from organizations in the developing world, we are now selling this book at cost.

Against the backdrop of crises in the financial markets, oil, food and the ongoing tragedy of mass poverty, all raising fundamental governance questions, the global anti-corruption community came together in Athens, Greece, for the 13th biennial International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) (http://www.13iacc.org/) from 30 October to 3 November, 2008 to share ideas and map out the way forward. Under the banner “Global Transparency: Fighting corruption for a sustainable future”, the conference gave special attention to the challenge corruption poses to sustainable and equitable development. This is the final declarartion of the event.