Instituto Ethos

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Pact gathers companies around the fight against corruption

Adriana Somma

“Corruption is a world problem that requires deep knowledge of its causes to be fought against,” said Jermyn Brooks, board member of Transparency International, and one of the speakers at the fifth theme panel – Business Pact for Integrity and Against Corruption – held at the 2006 International Conference.

During the activity, guidance on the implementation of the Business Pact for Integrity and Against Corruption by the companies was presented. The Pact will be launched on Thursday, June 22nd. It proposes actions to disseminate good practices of business ethics that can eradicate corruption from the list of strategies used to achieve economic results.

According to Carlos Eduardo Lins da Silva, director at Patri – Government Relations and Public Policy, the idea was born before the ‘mensalão’ scandal. “In Brazil, corruption is always seen as something done by the Government and those who feed corruption go unnoticed.”

Giovanni Quaglia, regional representative for Brazil and the South Cone of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said that “it is much easier for companies to make decisions to end corruption within their links than for politicians.”

The coordinator of the Human Rights Unit of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Brazil, Guilherme de Almeida, believes the best way to fight corruption is seeking good deals. “Corruption is a global problem – never relational – and this Pact is the only way to tackle it”, he emphasized.

Although not launched yet, the Business Pact for Integrity and Against Corruption is already supported by over 200 companies. Roberto Salas, Amanco CEO, presented a case study of an agreement signed by some water sector companies to fight corruption in their sector. Amanco proposed some strategies, challenges and solutions to the companies, such as the disclosure of information deemed as confidential, creation of roles for an ethics committee in charge of enforcing the agreement, and defining penalties.

This would bring some benefits, such as fostering an ethical culture among the internal workforce, strengthening the company’s reputation and image; building more trust within the business environment; promoting stability recovery, and building a new interaction model among companies, organizations and Government.

According to Ricardo Young, president of the Ethos Institute – Business and Social Responsibility, the Pact is still taking its first step, but the water agreement is way ahead.