Business Integrity Country Agenda (BICA) Report for Trinidad and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Business Integrity Country Agenda (BICA) Report for Trinidad and Tobago (2018)

Presented by Dr. Kamla Mungal

Director, TTTI

Current context of Trinidad and Tobago

High levels of corruption

T&T

4

Global Competiveness Report 2018

Score: 57.9 Rank: 78/140

Social Progress Index 2018

Supply and demand side to corruption

• Every transaction has a supply side and a demand side.

Corruption is no different

• The demander of a bribe is an official who has the power

to offer a government contract, to issue a license, or to allocate some scarce resource

• The supplier is a businessperson who wants these

favors.

• Business has a huge role in combating corruption

BICAs Objective

• Propose an evidence-based reform agenda which seeks to improve the

business integrity environment in the country and ultimately reduce corruption in and from the country’s private sector.

• TI defines business integrity as “adherence to globally-recognised ethical

standards, compliance with both the spirit and letter of the law and regulations, and promotion of responsible core values (e.g. honesty, fairness and trustworthiness)”

BICAs Purpose

• Help identify major challenges of business integrity

within a country and provide credible information for advocacy activities.

• Engage stakeholders in a shared diagnosis of the

situation.

• Act as a baseline against which progress can be

subsequently measured.

BICAs Methodology

Gather a body of business integrity evidence and compile a comprehensive analysis across the three stakeholder groups:

• The Public Sector (9) – laws, capacity, enforcement
• The Private Sector (5) – Policies and practices
• Civil Society (1) - Robustness

BICAs Methodology

• Each thematic area was further divided into indicators with their own

scoring questions with assessment criteria to be met.

• A score was then given to each indicator and an aggregated score

(arithmetic mean) was given to each thematic area.

Findings and Recommendations

• f the

BICA: Trinidad and Tobago(2018)

Trinidad & Tobago BICA Public Sector Assessment

Findin gs: the count ry’s laws and practi ces in

1.1 Prohib iting Briber y of Public Official s - 58 1.2 Prohib iting Comm ercial Briber y- 0 1.3 Prohib iting Laund ering Procee ds of Crime 1.4 Prohib iting Collusi

• n- 33

1.5 Whistl eblowi ng- 0 1.6 Accou nting, Auditi ng and Disclos ure - 31 1.7 Prohib iting Undue Influen ce - 42 1.8 Public Procur ement

• 25

1.9 Taxes & Custo ms- 42 Mainly “Not at all” to “To some extent”

Public Sector - Laws

Adequately addressed in T&T’s legislation

• Prohibiting

laundering

• f proceeds
• f crime

(money Partially Addressed in T&T’s legislation

• Bribery

among public

• fficials
• Undue

Not addressed in T&T’s legislation

• Whistleblow

ing

• Commercial

Bribery

• Lobbying
• Cooling off

Public Sector

The BICA Public Sector assessment revealed that Trinidad and Tobago has a fairly comprehensive legal environment, but several gaps exist. The major deficiencies lie mainly within the country’s enforcement and institutional capacities.

Public Sector - Enforcement Challenges

• Enforcement of bribery among public officials is covered under the overall offence of misbehaviour

in public office. However, enforcement conclusively poses challenges for the country.

• Trinidad and Tobago’s law enforcement agencies have systemic weaknesses to prevent laundering
• f the proceeds of crime. Trinidad and Tobago’s low money laundering conviction rate is evidence
• f the country’s challenges in actively applying the sanctions laid out within in law.
• The partial proclamation of the anti-collusion legislation also poses enforcement challenges.

Public Sector Capacity Issues

• High staff turnover.
• Difficulties in attracting new applicants to fill vacancies due to

stringent screening processes.

• Unappealing remuneration packages.

Lack of autonomy

• The ACIB lacks an independent budget, resulting in over

dependence on the resources and support of other agencies.

Inadequate spacing

• The Director of Public Prosecution Office is unable to hire

necessary staff due to limited physical space.

Partial proclamation of legislation

• Partial proclamation of the Anti-collusion legislation affects

the full operationalization of the Fair Trading Commission.

Lack of oversight body

• No established body to address non-adherence to accounting and

auditing standards in the public sector.

Public Sector Major Recommendations

Amendment of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1987 to cover commercial bribery and bribery of foreign officials. The current legislative framework ignores bribery in the private sector and only prohibits bribes where a state entity or the state is involved. This amendment would provide legislative cover thereby enabling and encouraging persons in the private sector to report cases of bribery.

Public Sector Major Recommendations

• The enactment of Whistleblowing legislation.
• Revision of Campaign Finance legislation to cover not only electoral

candidates but political parties as well.

• Urgent introduction of the legal requirement for companies to publish

a list of their beneficial owners.

Public Sector Major Recommendations

• Expand the power of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) to improve its

investigative capability in cases of alleged police misconduct. This body should have the power to compel officers to give evidence.

• Make The Anti-Corruption Investigation Bureau (ACIB) operationally

independent so that it can better fulfil its mandate as required by international best practice.

Trinidad & Tobago BICA Private Sector Assessment

The Private Sector is the second major stakeholder group assessed under the

• BICA. This

group assessment was based 2.1 Integrity Managemen t- 13 2.2 Auditing and Assurance- 42 2.3 Transparenc y and Disclosure- 25 2.4 Stakeholder Engagement- 42 2.5 Board of Directors- 50 “Not at all” to “To some extent”

Private Sector: Major Findings

• In the area of Integrity Management, few businesses in Trinidad and Tobago’s

private sector have formal anti-corruption policies. However, many companies have their own codes of conduct and policies for addressing internal corruption.

• While there is no whistleblowing legislation at the national level, a few

companies have implemented whistleblowing policies and programmes.

Private Sector: Major Findings

• Transparency and Disclosure: not a high priority for the business

community.

• Although companies may incorporate anti-corruption programmes

and policy guidelines in their operations, the extent to which this information is publicly available or advocated on their websites is low to non-existent.

Private Sector: Major Findings

Companies listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange are compliant with the basic disclosure, stakeholder engagement and corporate governance requirements mandated by law.

Private Sector: Major Findings

• Apart from the Trinidad and Tobago Extractive Industry Transparency

Initiative, there are few other multi-stakeholder initiatives specific to anti-corruption.

• Business associations generally take a public stance against corruption

and many outline their guiding principles for behaviour which promote the conduct of business with integrity by their members.

Private Sector: Major Recommendations

In the absence of state regulation, businesses should adopt self- regulation policies to prevent corrupt practices. This could result in greater access to global markets since many international companies refuse to conduct business with companies that do not subscribe to good governance policies.

Private Sector: Major Recommendations

It is imperative that companies in the private sector have a publicly available anti-corruption policy document that clearly states their position against corruption. Every business should be guided by rules which emanate out of this policy position and which clearly define acceptable practices. Ideally, its implementation should be overseen by the Board of Directors with execution by the relevant technical staff.

Private Sector: Major Recommendations

Companies should make available to the public all documents relevant to their code of ethics in the conduct of business. Many companies claim to have such documents but they are not readily accessible by the public. Companies should post their policies and supporting documents on their websites to increase public accessibility. This will allow stakeholders to make a more informed assessment of the company’s ethical position and to be better guided in doing business with the given company

Trinidad and Tobago BICA Civil Society Assessment

Civil Society

• rganizations hold a

vital role in promoting business integrity through monitoring business conduct, engaging with companies and also exposing violations of business integrity to the public.

3.1 Broader Checks and Balances- 33

Civil Society - Major Findings

• The media has favourable standings in terms of its level of freedom and independence in

reporting.

• There is some level of engagement between Civil Society organizations and companies
• n initiatives geared towards strengthen their commitment to business integrity.

(Examples Procurement Reform & the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative).

• There is limited information on civil society’s business integrity monitoring role.

Civil Society: Recommendations

• There should be a clear articulation of interests by civil society groups. A register of

interests should also be created.

• Civil society organizations are not involved expressly in the monitoring of private

sector corruption and do not have systems to support such monitoring. The BICA Report presents an opportunity for TTTI and other civil society organizations to utilize its findings in collaborating with the private sector to mitigate corruption and improve transparency and corporate governance business practices.

BICA Reform Agenda: Next Steps

• Transformation of the strategic recommendations resulting from

Trinidad and Tobago BICA Assessment into an operational reform agenda.

• Presentation of the reform agenda at a public event within six

months of the launch of the BICA Assessment report.

• Implementation of the recommendations within one year.