Business leaders push governments to act on corruption

The recent Ernst & Young European survey may have detected disquieting tolerance of unethical means of winning business but there is positive movement as well, evident in the call by a group of international business leaders on governments to do more to fight corruption. Executives from 27 companies, ranging from Britain’s Anglo American and Sweden’s IKEA to EADS France, the USA’s General Electric Company and India’s Tata, signed the letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. They called for proper implementation of the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption, notably the creation of “an effective review mechanism” to back enforcement. The letter warned: “The economic crisis will inevitably place severe strains on worldwide competition, threatening an erosion of ethical standards…”