The crisis should not divert attention from the fight against corruption.
Mark Pieth, Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery, talks to Lyndon Thompson about the need to keep the ball rolling.

Bribery is a modern day scourge on international trade. At a time when so many people are struggling through an economic downturn, bribery is a very real disease threatening our prosperity. It poses a serious challenge to the development of economies and contributes to market failure. It distorts competition, damages free enterprise and blights business. It stifles talent and innovation and kills entrepreneurship. In many cases it is the poorest in society who are hit the hardest

To create financial reforms that work and to instil a culture of integrity in financial markets, political leaders need to demonstrate a real commitment to transparency and accountability.

In the global fight against corruption, the OECD has helped forge some of the most important weapons. Now, in a new initiative, it is sitting down with its partners in the worldwide war on corruption to find ways to strengthen their collective armoury.

In 2007, South Africa signed up to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and joined the Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, a group made up of representatives from all 38 signatory countries which monitors the convention’s implementation and enforcement.

The OECD has developed new  guidelines to help make lobbying more  transparent and even-handed.

There have been major successes since the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention entered into force. But it will take a lot more to clean up unfair business practices.

Could country-by-country tax reporting help boost revenue for development? The answer is not that simple.