Among all the obstacles to bringing desperately needed assistance and economic growth to impoverished peoples around the world, perhaps none are as frustrating as fraud and corruption. While smart people can overcome such traditional barriers as time, distance and geographic inaccessibility, basic greed and dishonesty create walls so tall that lending and aid groups, watchdog groups, members of industry and oversight organizations (including accounting firms) often give up in frustration.
In early 2007 the World Bank Institute (WBI) invited a number of global organizations to join a coalition aimed at stamping out corruption. Invitees included Grant Thornton, Siemens, Transparency International USA, the United Nations Global Compact, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the Global Advice Network (Denmark) and InWEnt Capacity Building International (Germany).
“We’ve created a how-to guide that we’re calling a toolkit to help businesses, organizations and governments work collaboratively to stop corruption,” says William Olsen, principal in Grant Thornton's Economic Advisory Services practice specializing in fraud and investigative services. Olsen was a key Grant Thornton liaison on the project. Also involved were David Nummy, Global Public Sector executive director and expert in government procurement processes, and Sterl Greenhalgh, a Grant Thornton UK partner, who specializes in corruption investigations and fraud prevention.
Follow the links below to for more information on the initiative.
