Category Archives: GoodBlog

GoodCorporation’s second Business Ethics Debate to be held in Paris looked at whether or not business ethics can be said to add value to an organisation, or is it simply another cost that must be borne? In the introduction to the debate, it was suggested that those working in the fields of ethics and compliance…

Corruption in the defence sector costs an estimated $20bn per annum. So Transparency International’s (TI) findings that two thirds of the world’s largest defence companies do not provide enough evidence of the steps they take to combat corruption is of real concern. Mark Pymen, head of defence at TI and the lead author of the…

When the UK’s bribery laws were amended last summer, for the first time in over a century, it raised many questions about business practices. While the media focused on whether companies would still be able to take clients to Twickenham, most businesses were taking a careful look at their anti-bribery policies and asking the government…

David Green, the new head of the Serious Fraud Office, has confirmed that his organisation does not have corporate hospitality in its sights when it comes tackling bribery, and rightly so. Even last summer, the then Justice Secretary Ken Clarke confirmed that taking clients to Twickenham would not become a criminal offence once the Bribery…

According to business leaders, politicians and much of the media, the corporate world has taken a long, hard look at itself following the crash of 2008. Repeated calls for greater corporate responsibility have been issued and some of the findings from the latest CGMA survey on business ethics would suggest that some progress has been…

The so-called Shareholder Spring and subsequent city scandals have led to much talk about reforming the City to create greater responsibility.  While some call for more regulation, others demand less.  Few would argue that big bonuses based on short term gains need to go.  But what the City really needs is a change of culture…

If Bob Diamond’s resignation is “the first step towards a culture of responsibility” in the UK’s banking industry, what is the second? Any suggestion that it should be more rules is erroneous; there are already plenty with expensive compliance departments trying to enforce them. Scandals such as mis-selling and LIBOR have been caused by poor…

A recent article by Michael Skapinker in the Financial Times made the valid point that as far as ethical purchasing goes, consumers may talk the talk, but they are still a long way from walking the walk. A number of reasons are given as to why, most notably, consumers are inclined to tell researchers what…

When the Bribery Act became law last summer, it represented the first major change to UK anti-corruption legislation in over a century. Since it came on to the statute books it has been the focus of considerable management attention as businesses endeavour to ensure that adequate procedures are in place to prevent corruption. GoodCorporation invited…

Due diligence is proving to be one of the more challenging areas of Anti-Corruption management. Both the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) have required businesses to focus their attention in this area. In 2011, every FCPA/SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) investigation involved the payment of bribes via third…