CHENNAI: On the eve of the 64th Independence Day, the Anti Bribe Coalition (ABC) launched Honest Standard system for corporate, institutions, voluntary groups to fight against corruption. Under this new system, the ABC, an offshoot of Exnora International, would be approaching corporates and the Confederation of Indian Industry to voluntarily include Honest Standard in their corporate policy by visiting websites — www.wikihonestcitizen.org or www.antibribecollation.org.“By adopting the Honest Standard, the companies would not encourage corruption or bribe in their business activities,’ said Capt Pullat, the president of ABC.Corruption is not just restricted to the government sector, but it has penetrated deep into the private sector as well. When a private company asks its staff to bribe government officials, it is indirectly encouraging them to accept bribes from their vendors, he pointed out.The Indian Government has ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Recently, the United Kingdom enacted the Anti Bribery Act and it is in force since July 2011.“It calls on UK firms to enforce the Act against their overseas business partners and associates.Now, it becomes unviable to do business using corruption methods with other counties,” said Capt Pullat.India is one of the largest business partners with the UK firms, so all the transaction of Indian companies with Britain would be screened under this act, he said.Agaist this background, ABC feels making corporate companies adopt Honest Standard would not only help eradicate corruption, but also improve the business standards, thereby ensuring a stable society.Nirmal, Chairman of the ABC, said that when they discussed the idea with a France Corporate company in Chennai, the latter volunteered to donate money and adopt the Honest Standard system.“The MD of the company told me that it would help them tackle political groups who often visited them demanding money,” said Nirmal.Explaining the advantage of adopting the Honest Standard system, he said that if the companies are fully transparent in their functioning, the ABC will acknowledge them with a Gold Standard.It was not just the corporate, institutions or voluntary organisations, even individuals are covered under the system. “Any citizen who is interested in fighting against corruption can log in to our website and adopt the HS,” said Nirmal.ABC has been conducting meetings in city parks since May 1 seeking support of the public to fight against corruption. The campaign culminated on Saturday at Besant Nagar.
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