Can big business clean up corrupt governments in the developing world?
Greased palms, payments under the table. One of the seemingly intractable problems of doing business in the developing world is corruption. But some unlikely nations and corporations are teaming up to tackle it, says Elizabeth McGeveran of F&C Asset Management in Boston. She joined Michael Gallipo, coportfolio manager of small- and mid-cap growth strategies at Citizens Funds in Portsmouth, N.H., for this month’s roundtable on ethical investing. Here are excerpts of their comments: Q: Governments set rules to keep business honest, but why would business try to do the same for government? Ms. McGeveran: I think there’s a myth out there that oil and gas and mining companies benefit from corrupt markets. In fact, corruption is very expensive for companies. When federal officials are lining their pockets with public dollars, you have developing nations that don’t have hospitals, aren’t building roads – the kind of services and infrastructure that companies need. You also find that in corrup
