5.5.2.0 Introductie

The World Bank Institute recommends that companies adopt a two-pronged approach to combating corruption. The first perspective is the internal effort which consists of setting up internal mechanisms to prevent corruption. The internal efforts include implementing risk assessment mechanisms, anti-corruption policies and compliance programmes, as well as providing guidance to managers. The second perspective is the external effort to reform the operating environment to reduce corruption opportunities. The external effort is directed at promoting the ethical behaviour of partners and competitors, as well as attempting to change the culture of doing business. This can be done by sharing internal policies, experiences, best practices and success stories with external stakeholders, as well as by reaching suppliers and other stakeholders via neutral facilitators and initiating joint activities aimed at fighting corruption.

The external effort is also known as 'collective action.'1 A number of MNCs shared best practices at the 2nd Annual Anti-Corruption Summit held in October 2008 in The Hague (Anti-Corruption Summit 2008).2 The actions taken by these multinationals include internal and external efforts recommended by the World Bank Institute. The core mechanisms will be presented in this section: implementing anti-corruption policies and specific anti-corruption accounting controls (internal effort), and establishing third parties' and intermediaries' anti-corruption policies (external effort).