News & Blog

Transparency International is the world’s leading non-governmental anti-corruption organisation. With more than 100 chapters worldwide, Transparency International has extensive global expertise and understanding of corruption.

Transparency International UK (TI-UK) is the UK chapter of Transparency International, raising awareness about corruption; advocate legal and regulatory reform at national and international levels; design practical tools for institutions, individuals and companies wishing to combat corruption; and act as a leading centre of anti-corruption expertise in the UK.

Area of interest

Systems change

Themes covered

Capitalism

Rating Private Sector Political Transparency

Corporate political engagement is how the business sector interacts with Governments. It’s a legitimate activity. It helps Governments to design policies that help companies to thrive and regulations that protect the public interest. But when done in the shadows it can be a serious corruption risk where decisions are made in the interest of the rich and powerful.

Corruption can undermine people’s trust in democracy, the economy, institutions and leaders. The Corporate Political Engagement Index supports companies and the wider private sector to raise standards of political engagement. The index provides companies with an understanding of the respective strengths and weaknesses of their current approach to political engagement.

The results of Transparency International’s Corporate Political Engagement Index make for sobering reading with nearly three quarters failing to adequately disclose how they engage with politicians. This leaves the public in the dark about the relationship between big business and government, fostering mistrust in politics and business. More encouragingly almost a third of the companies assessed strengthened their political engagement policies as a direct result of the project.

Visit https://www.transparency.org.uk/publications/cpei2018/ to view the full results of the 2018 Index.