Foreword 2 The role of the private sector in fighting corruption: essential for meeting local and global governance challenges Jomo Kwame Sundaram1
The level of corruption in the private sector remains disturbingly high. It is not uncommon for domestic firms and multinationals to pay bribes in order to secure public procurement contracts, nor unusual to learn of powerful corporate entities exerting undue pressure so as to capture institutions and influence regulations to elicit favourable investment conditions. Such practices are all too often encouraged by or met with cooperation from civil servants, many of whom may be underpaid and hence struggling to make ends meet, or corrupt political leaders who use politics to make money that they may claim they need to advance their political ends or to pay for political support. Some who amass huge fortunes while in office may smuggle these assets out of their countries into secret personal bank accounts abroad. We know only too well that corporate corruption significantly diminishes or threatens the dynamism and growth that comes with fair competition. All the same, the harm that corruption inflicts does not confine itself to undermining healthy competition or paralysing economic growth. Some of the most important public policy challenges that we face today will be tackled only when business fully assumes its due responsibilities, which need to be complemented by effective regulation. Climate change, for example, will require huge investments, resource transfers and the ingenuity of business leaders to refashion their strategies in a sustainable manner. Greed and a short-sighted defence of anachronistic business models provide two of the most significant obstacles to addressing global warming in an equitable, effective and timely manner. Entrepreneurial vision, business integrity and corporate responsibility can, and must, play a central role in this context. Fragile states present another challenge. These countries are the backdrops of unimaginable human suffering and regional insecurity. Often they contain large military forces and formidable wealth in natural resources. In this context, extractive industries and the defence sector must play a central role in ensuring that corruption has no place in business dealings and that revenue streams and public expenditures alike remain transparent – a precondition for public accountability. 1 Jomo Kwame Sundaram is the assistant secretary general for economic development in the United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
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