The Anti-Corruption Knowledge Hub is an online space where Transparency International (TI) presents its research output. It is the home of the Anti-Corruption Helpdesk, TI’s expert network, a series of topic guides and country-specific research. In addition, the Hub hosts many of the studies, tools and knowledge which lie behind what we do at Transparency International.
Bribery is justifiably condemned, and is the object of a global legal
campaign. This article asks whether payment of a bribe can ever be
justified. In order to answer that question, the article first looks at three
tropes of reasons for criminalizing bribery: as a reflection of morality, to
preserve the connection between people and their government, and to
prevent harm. The article then examines and dismisses two common
excuses for bribery: the need to pay a bribe to conduct business, and the
optimal level of legal enforcement. The article then examines arguments
for paying bribes in authoritarian regimes, and concludes that such
arguments must be treated with caution. Finally, the article considers
bribes paid by Oskar Schindler to save the lives of Jewish workers.
Schindler’s bribes demonstrate that some bribes can be justified. Such
bribes do not present a new checklist for evaluating bribery, nor do they
represent a new trope of thinking. Rather, unique circumstances raise such
bribes above the rules against and concerns about paying bribes.
The GAN Business Anti-Corruption Portal is a collection of free anti-corruption compliance and risk management resources, including e-learning training, country risk profiles, and due diligence tools.
What international guidelines should your consider as part of a comprehensive anti-bribery compliance program? This complimentary resource offers insights into the full range of guidelines along with practical recommendations for implementing an effective program.
Download the Anti-Corruption Compliance Guidelines to learn:
The categories of an effective anti-corruption compliance program
Example references for policies, procedures and records, risk assessment, training, management of supply chain and business partners, and other process categories
This report offers an overview of the new ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management Systems Standard released in October 2016. Three years in the making, the first global standard on anti-bribery compliance was drafted to help organizations establish, implement, maintain, and improve an anti-bribery compliance program. The standard’s requirements are sorted into 10 major categories, which are summarized in this report. It also includes guidance for implementation and certification
Why have so few countries managed to leave systematic corruption behind, while in many others modernization is still a mere façade? How do we escape the trap of corruption, to reach a governance system based on ethical universalism? In this unique book, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi and Michael Johnston lead a team of eminent researchers on an illuminating path towards deconstructing the few virtuous circles in contemporary governance. The book combines a solid theoretical framework with quantitative evidence and case studies from around the world. While extracting lessons to be learned from the success cases covered, Transitions to Good Governance avoids being prescriptive and successfully contributes to the understanding of virtuous circles in contemporary good governance.
Offering a balanced but always grounded perspective, this collection combines analytic narratives of existing virtuous circles and how they were established, with an analysis of the global evidence. In doing so the authors explain why governance is so resistant to change, and describe the lessons to be remembered for international anti-corruption efforts. Exploring the primacy of politics over economic development, and in order to understand how vicious circles can be broken, the expert contributions trace the progress of countries that have successfully transitioned. Unprecedentedly, this book goes beyond the tests of different variables to showcase human agency on every continent, and reveals why some nations make the best and others the worst of the same development legacies.
This comprehensive examination of virtuous circles of governance will appeal to all scholars with an interest in transitions, democratization, anti-corruption and good governance. Policy-makers and practitioners in the fields of international development, good governance and democracy support will find it an invaluable resource.