Most international institutions have already recognized that transparency and the fight against corruption play a fundamental role as a component of their work. Below you will find relevant links to international institutions and their efforts in the area of public contracting, along with TI's most recent documents and presentations related to them.

African Union (AU)
The AU adopted a Convention on Combating Corruption on 11 July 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique. It strives to promote and strengthen the development in Africa by each State Party, of mechanisms required to prevent, detect, punish and eradicate corruption and related offences in the public and private sectors.

Council of Europe
(CoE) Several CoE Member States set up the Group of States against Corruption – GRECO on 1 May 1999. GRECO is responsible, in particular, for monitoring observance of the Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption and implementation of the international legal instruments adopted in pursuit of the Programme of Action against Corruption (PAC).

European Commission (EC)
The EC in its EU Communication on a Comprehensive Policy against Corruption of 28 May 2003 sets out an overview of what has been achieved at EU level. It also indicates what needs to be improved to give fresh impetus to the fight against corruption. TI’s position on the issue has been expressed in TI’s Comments on the European Commission Communication of 30 July 2003, as well as in its press release of 3 September 2003.

Building on one of its comments to the EC, TI organised a Roundtable on “Effective and Transparent Debarment Systems” in the EU with the European Anti-Fraud Office in January 2006 bringing together EU officials, business leaders and other experts. As a result of this, TI has now issued “Recommendations for the Development and Implementation of an effective Debarment System in the EU” (see press release the 6th of April 2006).

In late 2010 and early 2011 the European commission launched two Green Papers addressing the impending modernisation of Procurement policy in the EU and developing and expanding e-Procurement mechanisms union-wide. TI provided feedback on the papers and our responses can be accessed here and here respectively.

The EC maintains a useful website on public procurement, containing the latest developments in policy, key documents, an archive and useful links.

Organisation of American States (OAS)
In the wake of numerous corruption scandals in different countries of the Americas, efforts of the First Summit of the Americas process and the Organization of American States (OAS) led to the creation of the first international convention aimed at combating corruption. The Inter-American Convention against Corruption (IACAC), was adopted on March 29, 1996 in the city of Caracas, Venezuela.

On the TI Latinoamérica y el Caribe (TILAC) website you can learn more about the IACAC and Follow-up Mechanisms to it.

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
On 15 February 1999 the OECD Convention against Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions went into effect. The Convention makes it a crime to offer, promise or give a bribe to a foreign public official in order to obtain or retain international business deals. It is open to accession by non-members of the OECD.

TI is closely and independently monitoring the implementation of the OECD Convention. We are advocating for better national legislation where it fails to fully comply with the words and spirit of the Convention, and for consistent application and enforcement of these laws. So far, TI has published reports on the status of the Convention in several countries.

United Nations (UN)
The UN Convention against Corruption approved by the Ad Hoc Committee was adopted by the General Assembly by resolution 58/4 of 31 October 2003. It highlights the need to prevent corruption in the first place. Yet, the Convention also requires countries to establish criminal and other offences to cover a wide range of acts of corruption, if these are not already crimes under domestic law.

TI's contributions to the Draft Convention have, to date, been an important and independent resource for the Committee Delegates.

World Bank
The Bank has identified corruption as the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development. Corruption sabotages policies and programmes that aim to reduce poverty, so attacking corruption is critical to the achievement of the Bank's overarching mission of poverty reduction. The World Bank’s Anticorruption Strategy builds on five key elements: Increasing Political Accountability; Strengthening Civil Society Participation; Creating a Competitive Private Sector; Institutional Restraints on Power; Improving Public Sector Management.

For more information, please see the conventions section on the TI website.