Media advisory: Are defence companies doing enough to prevent corruption?

Transparency International UK's Defence and Security Programme will release its new Defence Companies Anti-Corruption Index (CI) online at www.defenceindex.org on 4 October at 00:01 GMT.

The first of its kind, the Index provides an analysis of what the 129 biggest defence companies around the world do and don’t do to prevent corruption. The study grades companies from A to F depending on the level of public evidence of their anti-corruption systems and processes.

In addition, we invited all companies to provide internal information on their anti-corruption systems beyond what is public. 34 companies did so, and we present these results separately.

The Index includes companies from all of the ten largest arms exporting nations like USA, Russia, Germany, France, the UK and China—who between them are responsible for over 90 per cent of the arms sales around the world. 

Transparency International UK estimates the global cost of corruption in the defence sector to be a minimum of US$20 billion per year, based on data from the World Bank and SIPRI. Overall, the defence companies included in this index are worth more than US$10 trillion, with a combined defence revenue of over US$500 billion.

There are 10 UK companies included in the Index: Babcock International Group, BAE Systems, Chemring Group, Cobham, GKN, Meggitt, QinetiQ Group, Rolls Royce, Serco Group, and Ultra Electronics Holdings.

We have also included other 30 European companies: Accenture, Avio S.p.A, Bumar Group, Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding, Dassault Aviation, DCNS S.A., Diehl Stiftung & Co. KG, EADS, Fincantieri, Finmeccanica S.p.A., Indra Sistemas, S.A., Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company, Kongsberg Gruppen ASA, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, MBDA Missile Systems, MTU Aero Engines GmbH, Nammo AS, Navantia, Nexter, Otokar, Patria Oyj, Rheinmetall AG, RUAG, Saab AB, Safran S.A., TATRA, a.s., Thales S.A., ThyssenKrupp AG, Tognum, and Zodiac SA Holding.

There are 44 companies from the USA as well: AAR Corporation, Alion Science & Technology Corporation, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), ARINC, Battelle, Bechtel Corporation, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, CACI International, CSC, Cubic Corporation, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Day & Zimmerman*, DynCorp International, FLIR Systems, Fluor Corporation, General Atomics, General Dynamics Corporation, General Electric Aviation*, Goodrich Corporation, Harris Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Honeywell International, ITT Exelis, Jacobs Engineering, KBR Inc., L3 Communications Holdings, Lockheed Martin, ManTech International, MC Dean, Navistar International Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Oshkosh Corporation, Raytheon Company, Rockwell Collins, SAIC, SRA International, SRC Inc, Teledyne Technologies, Textron, United Technologies Corporation, URS Corporation, VSE Corporation, and Wyle Laboratories.

A report, executive summary, press release and the website www.defenceindex.org with thorough analysis of the results will be made available on 4 October.

Interviews may be arranged with our experts on that day.

• Download a full list of the 129 companies included in this index.
• Learn more about our Defence Companies Anti-Corruption Index.
• Read more about Our Work and Focus Areas.