This Handbook is designed to raise the awareness of tax examiners and auditors of issues concerning bribery and other forms of corruption. It provides guidance on how to recognize indicators of possible bribery or corruption in the course of regular tax examinations and audits.
The Toolkit offers practical guidance on how corruption can best be tackled in multiple domains. It draws together relevant instruments to support the establishment of healthy systems of governance, prevent corrupt practices, detect corruption, prosecute delinquencies and remedy the consequences of corruption.
Paper authored by Daniel Kaufmann and Pedro C. Vicente.
We challenge the conventional definition of corruption as the ‘abuse of public office for private gain’, making a distinction between legal and illegal forms of corruption, and paying more attention to corporate patterns of corruption (which also affect public corruption). We undertake to identify general determinants of the pattern of legal and illegal corruption worldwide, and present a model where both corruption (modelled explicitly in the context of allocations) and the political equilibrium are endogenous. Three types of equilibrium outcomes are identified as a function of basic parameters, namely initial conditions (assets/productivity), equality, and fundamental political accountability. These equilibria are: i) an illegal corruption equilibrium, where the political elite does not face binding incentives; ii) a legal corruption equilibrium, where the political elite is obliged to incur on a cost to “deceive” the population, and, iii) a no-corruption equilibrium, where the population cannot be deceived. An integral empirical test of the model is performed, using a broad range of variables and sources. Its core variables, namely regarding legal corruption (and other manifestations of corporate corruption) come from an original survey developed with the World Economic Forum (in the Executive Opinion Survey 2004 of the Global Competitiveness Report). The empirical results generally validate the model and explanations. Some salient implications emerge.
The idea for this handbook began with G20 governments looking for ways to practically implement
the 2010 G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan. This Plan recognises the integral role the private sector plays
in the fight against corruption and calls for greater public-private partnership in this effort. Since the
adoption of the Plan, G20 governments and their private-sector counterparts have met on a number of
occasions to look at ways to build this partnership.
One of the suggestions that has come out of the discussions has been companies’ observation that the
myriad of existing anti-corruption principles for business can be confusing, especially for small and
medium-sized enterprises with limited resources, which are looking for concrete ways to prevent
corruption in their business dealings in an increasingly complex and globalised operating environment.
To address this challenge, this handbook has been developed by companies, for companies, with
assistance from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the World Bank. Our three organisations only
facilitated the work of private-sector organisations, which have volunteered their expertise and time with
us. These organisations include: representatives from the accounting and auditing profession, the Basel
Institute on Governance, the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), the
International Bar Association (IBA), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the World Economic
Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), Transparency International (TI), and the UN
Global Compact.
The handbook is not intended to create new standards or represent any form of legally binding
requirement for businesses. It has been developed to serve as a useful, practical tool for companies seeking
compliance advice in one, easy-to-reference publication.
The handbook is divided into three sections. The first section provides an overview of the
international anti-corruption framework, within which companies conducting international business must
operate. The second section provides a brief introduction to how companies can assess their risk in order to
begin developing an effective anti-corruption ethics and compliance programme. The third and most
significant section brings together the major business guidance instruments. A comparison of these
instruments reveals that they all largely include the same basic anti-corruption ethics and compliance
elements. These elements are further illustrated using real-life, anonymised case studies provided by
companies. Finally, the handbook includes as an annex a quick-reference table providing a crosscomparison
of all the major business guidance instruments referenced in this handbook.
The OECD, UNODC, and World Bank hope this handbook will be a useful resource not only for
companies headquartered in G20 countries, but for all companies that recognise the need for developing
and implementing robust anti-corruption ethics and compliance programmes.
This Guidebook serves as a reference material for governments, international organizations, the private sector, academia and civil society, by providing an overview of good practices in ensuring compliance with article 9 of UNCAC, which requires establishing appropriate systems of public
procurement, as well as appropriate systems in the management of public finances.
The Guidebook starts with an overview of public procurement as a major risk area for corruption; an overview of UNCAC and public procurement; and a review of the most common forms of corruption in public procurement. Chapter I analyses the requirements of article 9 of UNCAC, in terms of the objectives of public procurement. The flow of the entire public procurement cycle (divided into the pre-tender, tender and post-tender stages) is discussed in chapter II, which maps important corruption risks and identifies examples of responses to these risks of corruption. It also covers remedy systems in public procurement, as well as further corruption-prevention strategies, such as electronic procurement. Chapter III analyses the requirements of article 9 of UNCAC in terms of the objectives of public finance systems. A series of good practice examples—two of which won the United Nations Public Service Award (UNPSA)—are covered in the final chapter, chapter IV. Annex I briefly introduces other standards and policies in the area of public procurement, which have been sponsored by other international organizations. Annex II includes a checklist for meeting minimum requirements set out by article 9 of UNCAC.
The UNCAC self-assessment checklist is an innovative approach to gather information on the implementation of the Convention. Rather than using paper-based questionnaires, UNODC has developed a user-friendly computer-based application to assess compliance with the Convention.
This application has empowered UNODC to make more effective use of information provided by States parties and signatories. Taking advantage of statistical functions, the Conference of the States Parties is now receiving detailed information on compliance rate and technical assistance needs against selected articles of the Convention