The disclosure of anticorruption aspects in companies of the construction sector: Main companies worldwide and in Latin America

Abstract

Abstract The construction sector is considered the most affected by corruption, and the consequences of corruption are serious since the funds of the developing countries are diverted to be used in projects that are very unnecessary or that have cost overruns, leaving enormous debts and dangerous infrastructure and taking lives in their wake due to construction that collapses as a result of ignored construction rules in exchange for bribes (Transparency International, 2005). One of the ways in which to demonstrate that the companies are doing something to reduce this scourge is through the disclosure of anticorruption measures. Therefore, the objectives of this research seek to fill this gap. The first objective is to create an instrument, based on international norms, for measuring anticorruption in organizations, and the second is to determine the anticorruption measures disclosed by the companies in the construction sector. For this purpose, a sample is obtained of 26 companies on a global level (16 companies with global scope and 10 companies with operations in Latin America), and based on secondary sources, such as the annual report, corporate social responsibility report, and code of ethics/conduct, the content analysis is prepared. The resulting instrument was the Anticorruption Model Questionnaire (AMQ). Second, the anticorruption measures disclosed by the companies were primarily related to four topics: the Leadership and Commitment of Senior Management (LC) topic, followed by the Control and Evaluation (CE) topic; the topics of Planning (PL) and Implementation (IM) are the least disclosed.