In Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer 2013 90 per cent of respondents believed that the UK Government is run by a few big entities acting in their own interest.This is perhaps a surprising statistic considering the UK parliament’s historically high international reputation, and Britain’s comparably good position in rankings such as the Corruption Perceptions Index.
In essence it is an important part of a functioning democracy. The problem lies when it happens behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny. It can lead politicians in office to steer away from good government. Their decisions can benefit those who fund them. The public interest comes second. Special interests, backed by money, may sway decision-making and undermine democracy.
However, in recent years politics in the UK has been plagued by corruption scandals and public trust in politicians is plunging. There have been too many scandals, often because of a lack of transparency and accountability. But what’s the problem?
Opaque lobbying practices backed up by extensive funds at the disposal of interest groups can lead to undue, unfair influence in policies – creating risks for political corruption and undermining public trust in decision-making institutions.
Open governance is a concept that moves beyond the traditional notion of government and describes the relationships between leaders, public institutions and citizens, their interaction and decision-making processes. Open governance is comprised of three main elements – rights, institutions and policies, and tools. The Open Government Partnership of which the UK is a member, outlines accountability, technology & innovation, citizen participation and transparency as the key components of open governance. ANTICORRP is an exploration of the motivations and drivers of citizen-based action against corruption.
The 11 research work packages of ANTICORRP cover a wide array of corruption research issues from advancing the theoretical foundations to historical and ethnographic studies of corruption to large scale survey work. TI’s work package combines a mix of methods and approaches with the aim to gain a better understanding of how citizens experience corruption, what challenges and opportunities they face to do something about it and what mechanisms and tools can best support their engagement against corruption. This is being piloted by a number of Transparency International chapters.
How open is the UK government? The UK Open Governance Scorecard provides a comprehensive review of the UK’s legal framework for transparency, participation and oversight. Critically it also indicates how the system is working in practice. Our research finds that the UK’s open governance regime is stronger in practice than in law. The UK government has developed its open governance framework – particularly in proactive disclosure transparency and participation – largely through a patchwork of policy initiatives and procedural guidance.
Globally citizens perceive police integrity as one of the principal corruption problems in their societies. Bribe-taking, random arrests and corrupt avoidance of investigations are all commonplace in many countries. Such police corruption has been hard for societies to tackle in the past. The probity and high standards of the police are essential to protect citizens and carry out their duties in the community. A breakdown in the integrity of the police, even if only by a small minority, is hugely damaging to public confidence in that institution and society. This is true of the UK, with scandals such as phone hacking, ‘plebgate’ and Hillsborough exposing major corruption problems in UK policing, and in a similar vein to politics, public trust is in the force is fast eroding. The Leveson Inquiry and associated police criminal investigations revealed some shocking details about the cosy relationship between politicians and the media the
bribing of police officers and the lack of will to hold the media accountable even when laws had clearly been broken. Most recently we have seen new evidence of police corruption and deception following the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Following these scandals the government has taken action by setting out plans for a new criminal offence of police corruption. While this is an encouraging step we believe that laws are not enough. It is important to go beyond criminal offences and reactive measure and also look at ethics and behaviour. In November 2013, we called for a more comprehensive approach on the breadth of issues in UK police ethics. Critically TI-UK believes that corruption
should be explicitly prohibited, and the myth of so called ‘noble corruption’ should be debunked i.e. that the means of corruption can be justified by the ends.
Bribery is bad for resources-resources-business as it distorts investment climates, undermining the Department for International Development growth agenda. It raises the costs for UK resources-resources-businesses that operate overseas and discourages UK companies from entering new markets. When the problem is tackled effectively it benefits resources-resources-business by creating a level playing field, in which sales and contracts are won through an open market. This creates greater contract security and reduces the cost of doing resources-resources-business through eliminating the ‘bribery tax’ in contractual agreements. The UK Bribery Act 2010 was introduced to update and enhance UK law on bribery including foreign bribery in order
OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. It is now among the strictest legislation internationally on bribery. Notably, it introduces a new strict liability offence for companies and partnerships of failing to prevent bribery. BUSINESS INTEGRITY PROGRAMME Transparency International UK runs a Business Integrity Programme which aims to raise anti-corruption standards in UK-based companies so that they improve their own performance and help raise standards globally, while increasing awareness so that individuals and institutions within the private sector do not participate in, enable or endorse corruption. The programme does this through a Business
The programme does this through a Business Integrity Forum, producing best practice tools and guidance, and providing training and advisory services to companies. Bribery is a large UK issue. The UK Bribery Act 2010 (Act) came into force on 1 July. It seeks not only to combat bribery in the UK but has a wider territorial reach and is much more far-reaching than the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977. The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has already stated that “the UK will have the toughest bribery legislation in the world and it will be vigorously enforced…” This chilling statement has now been backed by action by the UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with the first conviction under the Act.