Contacts In London: Suvra Datta, Grant Thornton (00 44 207) 728 2375 suvra.datta@gtuk.com In Washington: Ekaterina Svirina (202) 458-1042 esvirina@wordlbank.org LONDON, June 19, 2008 – Recent research shows that global corruption can add as much as 20%- 25% to the costs of public procurement but many companies are still faced with the dilemma of either paying bribes to win business or withdrawing from high-risk markets. However, practical help is now at hand. The World Bank Institute today released "Fighting Corruption through Collective Action - A Guide for Business." Created to help companies fight back against the insidious impacts of corruption, the Guide, and its companion web portal, outlines proven methods to fight marketplace corruption through Collective Action between business and other stakeholders. Organized by the World Bank Institute, the coalition is made up of NGOs and multilateral organizations including United Nations Global Compact, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), and Transparency International, as well as several private companies. "The purpose of this guide is to establish a level playing field and assist firms who would otherwise have to abandon doing business in a corrupt environment", says Djordjija Petkoski, Program Leader, WBI. "It should become a staple component of a company's approach to promoting ethics and to managing the risk of fraud and corruption. Equally, the guide should also be of interest to enlightened governments and other organizations which share the goals of eliminating corruption from business dealings." "Companies are rightly concerned about the costly damage to their brand and reputation if they become associated with bribery and other forms of corruption. This guide will prove invaluable to business and compliance managers and not just in multinational companies but small and medium sized enterprises as well," says Sterl Greenhalgh, Head of Corporate Fraud Investigations at Grant Thornton UK and one of the members of the collective action guide working group. Collective Action in practice This toolkit and interactive web portal provide multiple options to combat corporate corruption based on proven “how-to” examples from many regions and sectors. Cases from Ecuador, Germany, Mexico, Pakistan and other countries are detailed in the guide. The guide and web portal will be launched at the ICC - Commercial Crime Services annual seminar in London later today. Through the portal, the World Bank Institute-led group will continue to support and report upon the use of collective action going forward.
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