Anti-Corruption in Business– What About a Global Compact Organised by the UN?

I was recently asked to speak at a conference on the subject of “The Tenth Principle of the UN Global Compact on Anti-Corruption in Business”. My initial response was, what Tenth Principle on ------------- etc etc? Whilst I declined to speak on this subject, since I was totally unaware of such a Compact, I did read up on the subject and found that this is a massive initiative originating in 2004 which has the backing of the UN movement and there are many very informative documents identifying various kinds of corruption and how to prevent or rid business organisations of such tendencies from a practical and operational rather than from a theoretical and unrealistic perspective. There are case studies, speeches, training aids, the whole nine yards. At a time when the media is congested with news of corruption and cronyism in both the developed and developing economies it is most strange that no one has publicly mentioned this initiative and indeed that analysts, media commentators, politicians, whole business sectors, individual organisations and their leaders are not using the Compact either to say that they are applying or will now apply the principles, guidelines and practical aids offered by this Compact if only to give themselves credibility in the present maelstrom. I contacted a few business and management institutes to ask if they utilised the Compact as a foundation, guideline or aid to the development of the codes of practice which they had developed for their members. Polite and informative bluster and confusion were the result.    

For those readers who are interested or curious on this question may I refer you to http://www. unglobalcompact.org website. I would also be interested to know from readers why they think that this Compact and its support material is not utilised by business organisations as a foundation for effective anti-corruption.