05 Nov 2014 – New York
Remarks by Magdy Martínez-Solimán, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director, Bureau for Policy and Programme Support
Business for Social Responsibility Conference 2014: Transparency and Transformation
Shared commitment and collective action in fighting corruption:UNDP perspective on public-private partnerships
“A call to action, a call against a cancer, a call for health and a call for integrity. The corporate world brings not only investment finance and capital but also normative frameworks, expertise and knowledge to the fight against corruption. Only bad business thrives in an atmosphere of traffic of influence, access to privileged information and widespread bribery. That’s the businesses afraid to compete because they can’t win fair and square against the competition. All other businesses, the medium enterprises, the startups, the big ones, the innovators, those who play by the rules need a State to enforce such rules. So the question is: are you afraid to compete or are you happy to play the integrity game? Bribery and facilitation payments are the most common reported issues in sectors that are critical to democratic governance and inclusive development: extractive industries, security and defense, big pharma and broadcast media. If you work for or with any of these sectors we need you even more. Ethical leaders are essential in promoting clean hands business practices connected to clean hands government rule. Let us protect the public market place, where the State buys from the private sector. It’s called procurement. Ethical, competitive and transparent procurement is a good way to prove that private corporations competes and the State buys value for money. Another good show of visibility is the disclosure of taxes and revenues paid by the Private Sector to Government. “Publish what you Pay” should be applicable to our work at all levels. It helps business, and it also helps the citizens know what the Government has cashed in and thus, what it will do with the public purse.”
Click here to watch the speech- http://youtu.be/ajuNAVd42Nk
Click here to read more – http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/speeches/2014/11/05/magdy-mart-nez-solim-n-remarks-at-the-business-for-social-responsibility-bsr-conference-2014/
