FIEC/EIC Statement on Corruption Prevention
The global fight against corruption could be reinforced if anti-corruption tools were identified that encourage positive behaviour by all parties rather than just penalising unethical behaviour by one party. Such measures should be implemented in a holistic manner and all stakeholders must act simultaneously within their sphere of influence.
For a number of years, various international institutions, with the EU, the OECD and the World Bank at the forefront, are rightly focusing a large amount of their attention on "Good Governance" and "Combating Corruption". Certain civil society organisations have singled out the construction industry as a sector which, according to their perception, is particularly prone to unethical business practices.
FIEC/EIC Policy Statement
FIEC and EIC have jointly responded to some simplistic statements and even misconceptions, ignoring the facts that European contractors themselves have been the victim of extortion and other types of unethical requests and have implemented an irreversible process towards the elimination of corruption within the corporate ambit, with a Policy Statement on Corruption Prevention.
Whilst FIEC and EIC strongly oppose corruption in its diverse forms as an unacceptable phenomenon in national and international business transactions, they call upon the public sector to complement private sector initiatives to fight corruption by closing loopholes that allow or even encourage unethical behaviour during the tender and the project delivery phases.
FIEC/EIC Recommendations
FIEC and EIC believe that "it takes two to tango" and that all parties involved in the construction process must act simultaneously within their sphere of influence in order to make progress on this important issue. They have made the following recommendations:
The Private Sector should act in accordance with its published Codes of Conduct.
Clients and Contracting Authorities should also implement a Code of Ethics and introduce Quality-Based Selection Processes including a positive weighting during the tender procedure for companies with credible anti-corruption policies.
Consulting Engineers should defend their professional independence throughout the project life and refrain from awarding a project to an inappropriate bidder or from abusing their certification authority.
Funding Agencies should maintain a full-scale supervision or audit where public funds are involved.
Donors should refrain from giving any type of budgetary aid or permission to use country procurement systems – at least insofar as the infrastructure sector is concerned – to countries which are not in control of their budget.