A new report by Transparency International (TI) shows that many companies are not considering bribery and corruption in their sustainability reporting. This analysis was undertaken as part of this year’s ACCA UK Awards for Sustainability reporting.
Transparency International reviewed reports by companies where bribery and corruption was likely to be of high importance because of their sector, size or the markets where they operate. The analysis shows that the extraction industries, where there is high risk of corruption, show the most attention to these issues in reporting, while the construction sector had the lowest.

The review concluded that some progress had been made in the reporting of these issues, particularly since the introduction of the UN Global Compact 10th Principle on corruption. However, that most of the reporting on corruption focuses on corporate governance and risk to reputation, with no consideration of the consequence of corruption and its subsequent damage to societies, environment and human rights.

The analysis identified a number of companies as best practice including BT, BAE Systems, BHP Billiton, BP, Diageo, Unilever and Shell.

Business in the Community is taking action on this issue through the work of the Marketplace Taskforce. The taskforce of business leaders is currently consulting on a set of marketplace principles designed to guide responsible business practice in relationships with governments, customers, suppliers.