Roundtables in New Delhi and Mumbai

The Alliance for Integrity organized two round tables in New Delhi and Mumbai on February 23 and 25, 2016 respectively titled “Compliance Conversation”. The discussions ranged over a wide array of topics, including engagement with third party intermediaries, facilitation fees and gifts, bribes, governance and anti-bribery laws, structural/institutional dichotomies with respect to legislation and enforcement in India.

Deliberations also shed light on the vulnerabilities of small businesses and the difficulties faced by them in tackling corruption, which in turn necessitates hand-holding efforts specifically directed towards the small businesses. Good practice examples were shared by businesses on each of the issues. The conversations also meandered to more amorphous topics of attitudinal shift away from seeking short term profit maximisation to competitiveness and to value creation and gaining competitiveness in the long term.

This change in the conventional success parameters can be brought forth through the collective conscience of all stakeholders including the end consumer of services and products.

The message that emerged strongly in the two round tables was that the tone at the top is critical and it must be clear and direct, zero tolerance for corruption. Additionally it was felt that open discussions among different stakeholders groups are critical to this agenda.
The insights from these candid conversations will be captured in the compliance handbook that Alliance for Integrity is currently developing.

Some of the businesses that participated include Nokia, Vodafone, Alstom, BASF, Siemens, Roche, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Denso, etc.