36
Corruption and the private sector
countries have enacted such provisions, but enforcement remains patchy. Loopholes and workarounds continue to be exploited even in the most advanced regulations, requiring continuous refinements.14 Transparency initiatives are relatively new additions to this toolbox and provide essential checks when enforcement is otherwise poor. Provisions such as asset disclosure by public officials, open hearings and consultative rule-making processes, all backed up by strong access to information, enable citizens, watchdog groups and the media to track and engage with political decision-making better. Revolving-door provisions established in the United States, France and Latvia, for example,15 further help defuse conflicts of interest. They typically require ‘cooling-off’ periods before civil servants or legislators can lobby their former colleagues or join the industries that they were previously entrusted with overseeing.
The information brokers: media, civil society and science Ensuring that the media are free, fair and inclusive in the context of commercial pressures rests on strong provisions for freedom of expression and low entry barriers. The policy response to lobbying that masquerades as journalism can include requirements for the strict disclosure of funding sources and a clear distinction between content and commercial messages. Media diversity should be encouraged through subsidies for alternative media, access to bandwidth and channels, and continuing support for the independent public service media. A thriving media sphere requires a thousand flowers to bloom. Protecting the integrity and critical contribution of science rests on the full disclosure of research funding, continuing public funding for critical research, robust peer review and an unwavering commitment by the scientific community to integrity and the principles of scientific inquiry. Similarly, ensuring the integrity and authenticity of interventions by civil society in the public debate rests on the full disclosure of funding and policy purpose.
The agents of influence: regulating the lobby industry Lobbying firms are frequently part of larger transnational communication conglomerates that maintain representations in important economies around the world. Until recently the lobbying industry has enjoyed very limited special oversight or regulation, despite its growth, global expansion and close interaction with the processes of policy-making. For over a century the United States was the only country that regulated lobbyists. By 1991 Australia, Canada and Germany had followed suit, and as of this writing several other countries had enacted
14 See, for example, the high-profile 2006 scandal in the United States involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, which prompted refined lobbying regulation in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. 15 Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), Rules and Guidelines regarding Revolving Doors/Pantouflage (Strasbourg: GRECO, 2007).