Australia jumped from eighth to sixth on the BPI rankings, in which senior international business executives rank a sample of countries based on how likely they are to engage in bribery. Executive Director of Transparency International Australia, Michael Ahrens, emphasised the difficulty in repairing Australia’s once clean reputation. “A lot of damage was done by the scandal surrounding certain members of the Australian Wheat Board and their conduct in Iraq,” Mr Ahrens said.
“We are now recovering from that setback, which saw Australia fall from being ranked first on the BPI in 2002 to eighth in 2008. “Australia’s reputation will be further bolstered by the successful prosecution of Securency, the bank note printers who were accused of bribing foreign officials.” Mr. Ahrens said the Gillard Government had an important role to play in discouraging bribery in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Australia should encourage all regional countries to sign and support the UN Convention Against Corruption and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention,” Mr Ahrens continued. “Companies in the trading powers of our region, such as China and Indonesia, are still perceived to be engaging in bribery when doing business abroad.”
The 2008 BPI is based on the responses of over 3000 senior business executives from companies in 28 developed and developing countries, chosen by the volume of their imports and inflows of foreign direct investment.
The full results of the BPI can be viewed at http://bpi.transparency.org/
Media Contact:
Michael Ahrens | 0411 360 209 |
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Ben Jackson| 02 9904 4333 | 0417 407 565 |
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Bob Lawrence | 02 9904 4333 | 0428 280 222 |
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