Thursday 25 and Friday 26 April 2013 sees Barry speaking at a session at the G20 conference on corruption in Paris (with Richard in attendance, naturellement) after we were invited along.

The conference is jointly organised by the Russian Presidency of the G20 and the OECD, with support from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The session entitled “Carrots or Sticks? Balancing sanctions with incentives to promote clean business” will look at the punishment for breaking the rules versus the rewards for behaving ethically and will look to answer a series of questions:

• What is a healthy balance between punishments for corrupt behaviour and rewards for clean business practices?
• What measures can governments employ to ensure their companies and citizens abide by their anti-corruption rules?
• What avenues can companies confidently follow for working with their governments to address violations of their anti-corruption compliance programmes?

Let us know your views if you’d like to share them.

The panel aims to address these questions by looking at up-and-coming trends in enforcement and compliance, such as voluntary disclosures by companies, corporate “self-cleaning”, and out-of-court settlements for anti-corruption violations.

Carolyn Ervin, Director for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, OECD (TBC) is moderating the session and, in addition to Barry, other speakers are:

 Charles Heeter, Chair, BIAC and Managing Principal, Global Public Policy, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd

 Massimo Mantovani, General Counsel, Legal Affairs, ENI

 Sheng Xi, Chief Audit Officer, China Eastern Airlines

The conference draws on the priorities laid out in the 2013-2014 G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan and Business 20 (B20) Recommendations to Governments. It also builds on the outcomes of the two previous High-Level Anti-corruption Conferences in Paris 2011 and Puerto Vallarta 2012.

The conference is billed as bringing together high-level government, business and civil society representatives – so we’re in good company!