Private firms urged to do share in curbing corruption

The National Competitiveness Council has urged the private sector to further intensify their own initiatives to help curb corruption, which remains one of the hurdles that the country faces in having a more conducive business environment, creating a level playing field and ensuring progress.

In a forum Tuesday, NCC private sector co-chair Guillermo Luz agreed that the private sector “should be doing more.” But while there had been significant improvements over the past decade, Luz admitted that based on the trend they have seen, improvements from anti-corruption measures implemented in the public sector yielded more gains than those by the private sector.

“We need to step it up a lot more. In the last three years, there had been improvements. But are we where we want to be? Not yet. But are we moving towards the right direction? Yes,” he noted.

Luz issued his remarks in an NCC dialogue on the SWS 2013 Enterprise Survey on Corruption, which was released last month. The survey polled last year executives from 951 companies in seven study areas—Metro Manila, Metro Angeles, Cavite-Laguna-Batangas, Metro Iloilo, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao and Cagayan de Oro-Iligan.

Among the key findings was that participants in the survey who saw corruption in the public sector rose to 56 percent in 2013 from a record-low 43 percent in 2012. Meanwhile, 42 percent of those polled said most or almost all companies in their own sector of business gave bribes to win government contracts. The survey also showed that executives who believed that the administration’s steps were “somewhat/very effective” fell to 73 percent in 2013 from 78 percent a year ago. Those saying that the government “often/almost always punishes” corrupt government officials fell to 20 percent in 2013.

According to Luz, companies must, as a start, be able to sign up for the Integrity Initiative project, conduct a self-assessment of their own policies and improve their practices, prior to finally seeking an independent assessment of their companies.

The Integrity Initiative started in 2010 by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines and the Makati Business Club to assist the government in combating corruption, provide a level playing field for investors and minimize unemployment in the country. More than 1,000 companies nationwide and 39 key government agencies have signed up with the project.