Canadian Companies Least Corrupt in World: Report

(Canwest News Service – Peter O’Neil)

Companies from Canada and Belgium are viewed as the least likely to engage in corrupt practices in their overseas business dealings, according to a new report issued Tuesday.

The two countries were tied for first in a survey by Berlin-based Transparency International of the perceived business activities of companies from the world’s top 22 countries in terms of international trade and investment.

Russia ranked last, just behind China, Mexico, India and Brazil. The U.S. was tied for ninth place with France and Singapore.

The index “provides evidence that a number of companies from major exporting countries still use bribery to win business abroad, despite awareness of its damaging impact on corporate reputations and ordinary communities,” said TI international chair Huguette Labelle, the former president of the Canadian International Development Agency and current chancellor of the University of Ottawa.