Another way to fight corruption and restore trust in business and government

The World Economic Forum (WEF) in collaboration with Deloitte recently released a new report exploring solutions to rebuild trust in the Infrastructure and Urban Development industries, and its connection to fighting corruption. The report uses Mexico as a case study, emphasizing the importance of developing public-private cooperation, the importance of education and the role of leadership in advancing the anti-corruption agenda in Latin America.

According to WEF, the annual cost of corruption is equivalent to more than five percent of global GDP, or an astounding $2.6 trillion, with the World Bank citing over $1 trillion paid in bribes each year. Corruption continues to present large-scale problems for businesses and communities, reaching all corners of the world. While major scandals often make headlines, forms of corruption occur every day in every market, impacting many industries and civil society.

This report is part of the third phase of the Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) project to address the needs of the Infrastructure and Urban Development industries (IU). As the project adviser for the report, Building Foundations for Trust and Integrity, the project has shown that a multifaceted approach and continuous dialogue are crucial in fighting corruption and restoring trust in business and government.

Our report outlines four recommendations to rebuild integrity and addressing corruption:

• Recommendation 1: Build trust and integrity through online educational platforms. Establish an educational and mentoring mechanism to combat corruption, stimulate good governance and restore integrity.
• Recommendation 2: Develop a framework for mapping digital solutions. By increasing transparency and fighting corruption, it is hoped that citizen trust can be restored.
• Recommendation 3: Raise awareness through information sharing. Sharing information and data empowers all stakeholders to make the right decisions and improves accountability.
• Recommendation 4: Develop a digital blockchain application. Developing a blockchain backbone to address corruption will increase corporate and government transparency internationally by increasing the use of publishing cryptographic hashes during each step of a transaction.

This report and our recommendations provide another pathway for the public and private sectors to work together, but advancing the anti-corruption agenda for the long-term will require strong and continuous commitment from all stakeholders to train and educate, act as role models and fight impunity in all parts of society.