ESG Metric: Anti-corruption
Ease of implementation: Medium
Suitable for: All businesses
Suggested functional lead: HR, legal department
Summary
Corruption is defined as “requesting, offering, giving or accepting directly or indirectly, a bribe or any other undue advantage or prospect thereof, which distorts the proper performance of any duty or behaviour required of the recipient of the bribe, the undue advantage or the prospect thereof”1. Corruption and bribery are responsible for an average direct annual global cost of $3.6 trillion paid in bribes annually2. Thus, anti-corruption legislations are being enforced more rigorously globally to ensure all business, whether private or public, are being held accountable. Notably, the Foreign Corrupt Practice in the US and Bribery Act in the UK are making companies more liable for the conduct of their employees and the actions of their intermediaries including agents, consultants and other external parties. Training must be given to all employees regarding anti-corruption, how to identify risk and how to mitigate it. Below are four options of training material available.
Implementation Steps
UN Anticorruption Platform
The UN Institute for Training and Research has collaborated with the Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Center to create a UN Anticorruption platform. It aims to foster capacity building to fight corruption. It has created an online platform with training material and publications to better understand corruption, and thus, identify how it links to various topics. The aim of the platforms is to understand the cause and effect of corruption within different sectors and identify ways to combat it. The platform consists of training material, a knowledge depositary of publications and other useful websites to access further information. Training is given in various languages from various UN departments and Universities. Potential modules include: the use of technology to combat corruption, anti-corruption and sustainable development and many more. Access the training material here.
UNODC Anticorruption eLearning course
UNODC launched a global eLearning Programme in 2016 regarding Anti-corruption. It was developed by experts from the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch of the UNODC. The course consists of two modules: Intro to anti-corruption and prevention of corruption. It is available globally and in multiple languages. Register and access the course here.
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters is a multinational organisation providing information, tools, software and services for the legal industry. They help and provide information to organisations in the legal, news and media, and tax and accounting sectors. Their online Anti-bribery and Anti-corruption training aims to familiarize employees with the law and help them recognize and mitigate the risk. The training has been adapted to 11 different regional laws and jurisdictions, include country and continent specific training. Find the list of training courses here.
UK Government and City of Lonon Police short videos
The UK Government has set out a few guidance videos regarding the 2010 Bribery Act. The City of London police developed 4 short videos on crime prevention for organisations to use as internal employee training. The training includes: Consequences Begin at Home, The Cell, The Bribery Act and The Conversation. These are shorter training material designed to be used as continual employee training on anti-corruption on all levels of seniority. Access the training here.