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By Godfrey Olukya 13-3-2015
57.6% of companies in Africa see the development of policies and procedures that can be practically applied in all countries as the most challenging internal anti-corruption and compliance issue, a report released today by an anti corruption organization called Control Risks has revealed.
They have requested countries in Africa to put more emphasis on fighting corruption.
According to the report, while there are some organizations working on anti-bribery and corruption regulation, in a number of African countries the governments feel increasing pressure to join the current trend of stronger enforcement of anti-bribery and corruption regulation in developing countries.
“The way that things have always been done is changing in many African countries and often management determination and the acceptance of “wasted” time and higher costs can avoid the need for bribes to secure business.” the report said.
Tom Griffin, Managing Director West Africa, Control Risks, said, “Often companies try to roll-out a global anti-bribery and corruption programme from Western headquarters and are then surprised that it is not effectively implemented in other markets – this is not unique to African countries. Companies need to adapt the policies and initiatives to the local culture, for example the type of training for employees. Some of our clients with their headquarters in Africa are more effective in their fight against bribery and corruption than those headquartered elsewhere, as they have an anti-bribery and corruption programme very focused on the specific issues of their market.”
Control Risks sees a change in how things have always been done’ in many African countries. The fight against corruption is higher on the political agenda than ever before and when we discuss the corruption problems in operating in these countries, we need to acknowledge this.
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