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.
