Canadian Companies Least Corrupt in World: Report

Canadian Companies Least Corrupt in World: Report
(Canwest News Service – Peter O’Neil)

Companies from Canada and Belgium are viewed as the least likely to engage in corrupt practices in their overseas business dealings, according to a new report issued Tuesday.

The two countries were tied for first in a survey by Berlin-based Transparency International of the perceived business activities of companies from the world's top 22 countries in terms of international trade and investment.

Russia ranked last, just behind China, Mexico, India and Brazil. The U.S. was tied for ninth place with France and Singapore.

The index "provides evidence that a number of companies from major exporting countries still use bribery to win business abroad, despite awareness of its damaging impact on corporate reputations and ordinary communities," said TI international chair Huguette Labelle, the former president of the Canadian International Development Agency and current chancellor of the University of Ottawa.



"The inequity and injustice that corruption causes makes it vital for governments to redouble their efforts to enforce existing laws and regulations on foreign bribery and for companies to adopt effective anti-bribery programmes," she said in a statement.

Canada ranked fifth in each of the three previous corruption indexes, released in 2006, 2002 and 1999. However, TI cautioned against making comparisons because previous surveys used different methodology.

TI based the 2008 index on responses from 2,742 senior corporate executives in 26 countries that are both major importers and significant recipients of foreign direct investment.

"To assess the international supply side of bribery, senior business executives were asked about the likelihood of foreign firms, from countries they have business dealings with, to engage in bribery when doing business in their country," TI explained in a news release.