Business Challenges Governments to Integrate Anti-Corruption Into Future Development Agenda

Call to Action: Public Procurement Should Be Public 

(Panama City, 26 November 2013) – On the occasion of the Fifth Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in Panama City, business took center stage by urging Governments to make good governance and accountability a key component of the post-2015 UN development agenda. A renewed Business Call to Action was launched to showcase the private sector’s willingness to lead the fight against corruption and provided a roadmap for business and Governments to collaborate in support of sustainable development.

The Conference – established to improve the capacity of and cooperation between States parties to achieve the UNCAC’s objectives – was attended by representatives from Government, the private sector, UN, civil society, academia and international anti-corruption organizations. 

In a statement delivered at today’s plenary session, Olajobi Makinwa, Head of Transparency and Anti-Corruption at the UN Global Compact, emphasized the importance of the business perspective in the formulation and implementation of the post-2015 development framework, particularly as it pertains to corruption and good governance. “Corruption has considerable and costly impacts on the private sector,” she said. “Corruption is one of the greatest obstacles to economic and social development around the world; it impedes long term foreign and domestic investment and has a corrosive effect on social solidarity.” 

Ms. Makinwa pointed to the Business Call to Action, which asks more than 8,000 Global Compact business participants to join forces with Governments to create enabling environments for more robust disclosure, transparency and enforcement mechanisms. Specifically, it calls on Governments to fully implement and enforce the UN Convention against Corruption; commit to reduce corruption risks from large-scale procurement and contract processes; engage in competitive and transparent procurement processes through public advertising – that is, make public procurement public; enhance public disclosure of payments made to companies to Governments; and support corporate efforts around anti-corruption.

The Global Compact, together with partners Transparency International and the World Bank Institute’s Open Contracting initiative, again called on business leaders to support the Business Call to Action in order to advocate for good governance and ensure that anti-corruption goals are included in the post-2015 development agenda.

Good governance was one of ten post-2015 goals recommended by business in Corporate Sustainability and the United Nations Post-2015 Development Agenda, which was submitted by the Global Compact to the UN Secretary-General in June 2013. The report, which was the culmination of consultations and surveys with thousands of businesses in all major regions, fed into the Post-2015 Business Engagement Architecture launched by the Secretary-General at the Global Compact Leaders Summit in September 2013.

Also announced at the Conference was a draft guide to help companies approach sport sponsorship and sport-related hospitality in a transparent and ethical manner. The final Guide on Sport Sponsorship and Sport-Related Hospitalities will be released at the next Meeting of the Global Compact Working Group on the 10th Principle Against Corruption, to be held on Anti-Corruption Day (9 December) in New York.

• View full remarks
• For complete details on the Business Call to Action, please visit:/Issues/transparency_anticorruption/call_to_action_post2015.html

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UN Global Compact
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