Corrupção: OCDE

OECD calls on businesses to step up their fight against bribery

Companies should put in place strict internal controls and establish ethics and compliance programmes as part of a strategy to combat bribery in international business deals, according to a new guidance agreed by the 38 countries that are party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

From March 2010, the OECD Working Group on Bribery - made up of representatives from these 38 nations - will monitor countries’ progress in encouraging their companies to implement the Good Practice Guidance on Internal Controls, Ethics and Compliance.

“Too few companies are aware of how damaging foreign bribery is to their business, their industry and the world economy. Bribery distorts everyone’s ability to compete in a global market,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. “This is the most comprehensive guidance ever provided to companies and business organisations by an international organisation on this issue and marks another step forward in the fight against bribery.”

Specifically, the Good Practice Guidance calls on businesses to:
· Adopt a clear and visible anti-bribery policy that is strongly supported by senior management;
· Instill a sense of responsibility for compliance with the policy at all levels of the company, as well as independent compliance structures;
· Keep up regular communication and training on foreign bribery for all employees, as well as with business partners; and
· Encourage observance of anti-bribery compliance measures, and disciplinary procedures to address their violations.

The Guidance also recommends that business organisations play a leading role in providing information, advice and training to companies, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises, on how to protect themselves against the risk of foreign bribery.

>> More information on OECD work on anti-corruption is available at www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption.

O CLICK da inovação

Como se promove os click's nas empresas ? (esta é para descomprimir de tanto "relatório" aí no blog.. :-) )
"Feche os olhos. Pense em três coisas em que pode ser mais criativo no seu dia a dia, a nível individual, e outras três a nível de equipa. Preencha a sua licença para ser criativo e assuma este compromisso para o futuro !"

A Sonae Sierra organiza acção de formação para tornar os seus colaboradores mais criativos.
Noticia toda aqui

“If a government wants to cheat, it can cheat”

Corrupção?
Escândalo?
Habilidade?
Nada disso.
Apenas imaginação, criação, ginástica mental.
(obrigado ao professor Sandro pela dica deste artigo do NYT: Wall St. Helped to Mask Debt Fueling Europe’s Crisis .)
os destaques no texto citado são meus.

...
Wall Street did not create Europe’s debt problem. But bankers enabled Greece and others to borrow beyond their means, in deals that were perfectly legal.
...
"If a government wants to cheat, it can cheat,” said Garry Schinasi, a veteran of the International Monetary Fund’s capital markets surveillance unit, which monitors vulnerability in global capital markets.
...
For all the benefits of uniting Europe with one currency, the birth of the euro came with an original sin: countries like Italy and Greece entered the monetary union with bigger deficits than the ones permitted under the treaty that created the currency. Rather than raise taxes or reduce spending, however, these governments artificially reduced their deficits with derivatives.

Derivatives do not have to be sinister. The 2001 transaction involved a type of derivative known as a swap. One such instrument, called an interest-rate swap, can help companies and countries cope with swings in their borrowing costs by exchanging fixed-rate payments for floating-rate ones, or vice versa. Another kind, a currency swap, can minimize the impact of volatile foreign exchange rates.

But with the help of JPMorgan, Italy was able to do more than that. Despite persistently high deficits, a 1996 derivative helped bring Italy’s budget into line by swapping currency with JPMorgan at a favorable exchange rate, effectively putting more money in the government’s hands. In return, Italy committed to future payments that were not booked as liabilities.

“Derivatives are a very useful instrument,” said Gustavo Piga, an economics professor who wrote a report for the Council on Foreign Relations on the Italian transaction. “They just become bad if they’re used to window-dress accounts.”

In Greece, the financial wizardry went even further. In what amounted to a garage sale on a national scale, Greek officials essentially mortgaged the country’s airports and highways to raise much-needed money.