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 Global Competiveness Report 2018 Score: 57.9 Rank: 78/140 4

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 of the BICA: Trinidad and Tobago(2018)

Trinidad & Tobago BICA Public Sector Assessment Findin Mainly gs: “Not at all” to 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 the “To some extent” Prohib Prohib Prohib Prohib Whistl Accou Prohib Public Taxes count iting iting iting iting eblowi nting, iting Procur & ry’s Briber Comm Laund Collusi ng- 0 Auditi Undue ement Custo laws y of ercial ering on- 33 ng and Influen - 25 ms- 42 and Public Briber Procee Disclos ce - 42 Official y- 0 ds of ure - practi s - 58 Crime 31 ces in

Public Sector - Laws Adequately Partially Not addressed addressed in Addressed in in T&T’s T&T’s T&T’s legislation legislation legislation • Whistleblow • Prohibiting • Bribery ing laundering among • Commercial of proceeds public Bribery of crime officials • Lobbying (money • Undue • 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 • of the proceeds of crime. Trinidad and Tobago’s low money laundering conviction rate is evidence of 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. • The ACIB lacks an independent budget, resulting in over Lack of autonomy dependence on the resources and support of other agencies. • The Director of Public Prosecution Office is unable to hire Inadequate spacing necessary staff due to limited physical space. Partial proclamation of • Partial proclamation of the Anti-collusion legislation affects legislation the full operationalization of the Fair Trading Commission. • No established body to address non-adherence to accounting and Lack of oversight body 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 “Not at all” to major “To some extent” 2.1 Integrity 2.2 Auditing 2.3 2.4 2.5 Board of stakeholder Managemen and Transparenc Stakeholder Directors- 50 group t- 13 Assurance- y and Engagement- assessed 42 Disclosure- 42 under the 25 BICA. This group assessment was based

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 organizations hold a vital role in promoting business integrity through monitoring business conduct, engaging with 3.1 Broader companies and also Checks and exposing violations of business integrity to Balances- 33 the public.