Digital instruments and technology in the fight against corruption

19.02.2020

Mexico City, Mexico

On February 19, the Alliance for Integrity Advisory Group met in Mexico City for the fifth time. The members of the Advisory Group, which include representatives of private enterprises, civil society organisations and government institutions, came together to select the Chair and Vice Chair for 2020, who will coordinate efforts and strategies to ensure the sustainability of the initiative in the country.

Gustavo Pérez, Corporate Social Responsibility Director of Grupo Toks, finished his one-year term as Chair of the Advisory Group. As last official act, he opened the meeting discussing the challenges that Mexico faces in the fight against corruption. Juan Ignacio Díaz, President and CEO of Siemens Mexico and Vice Chair of the Advisory Group for the past twelve months, took the opportunity to thank the members for trusting him and congratulated Gustavo for his hard work and great achievements.

The opening speeches were followed by the election of the new Chair and Vice-Chair. Within a unanimous vote, Juan Ignacio was chosen as the new Chair, taken into account his prior experience as Vice Chair, and Lorenzo Berho, founder of Vesta, as Vice Chair.

Guest speaker Katja Bechtel, Lead of Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) of the World Economic Forum (WEF), shared insights from her work with PACI, the world´s largest CEO-led anti-corruption initiative, with a focus on multi-stakeholder cooperation.

She emphasised the importance of developing technological solutions, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, in the fight against corruption. Bechtel also proudly announced the creation of the first Anti-Corruption Data Analytics Consortium with Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Advisory Group member and representative of the Public Sector, Carlos Villalobos, General Director of Business Linkage from the Secretaría de la Función Pública (SFP), introduced the Padrón de Integridad Empresarial, a registry for companies that achieve the minimum requirements of integrity as suppliers for the Mexican Government. The registry will initially cover 1,500 businesses, to incentivise the creation of internal integrity systems that can spread through the industry’s value chain. He highlighted the need for sustainable reporting and alert systems and echoed Bechtel´s support for the use of technology to promote integrity in the future.

As Gustavo Pérez observed: “[In Mexico] we face many challenges and areas of opportunity, but we also have a lot of good results that show our efforts. We can and have contributed to the conversation.” The conversation will continue in March within future events of the Alliance for Integrity in Mexico, including the second edition of the Integrity Coffee for female entrepreneurs in Mexico City and a DEPE training in León, Guanajuato.
   
Author: Kevin Oskar Pöll Garduño

 

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