At a recent meeting with a mining company, I was impressed with the way health and safety was embedded into its business ethos – the firm began its video conference with a five-minute-long story about the changing attitudes towards wearing seatbelts. Yet I don’t see ethical risks – such as bribery and corruption – getting the same treatment.

But, this too is at heart a behavioural issue with serious consequences. A failure to address bribery and corruption risks can result in unprecedented damage – not only to a company’s reputation, but also to successful economic growth, particularly in emerging economies. Bribery is something that is becoming harder to overlook. Would raising the profile of unethical behaviour within a business to a similar level as health and safety help reduce these unethical practices?

In some parts of the world corruption of officials to gain commercial advantage is common. We have seen payments to government officials to win communication licences in certain African countries, the bribing of customs officers to speed up the importing of key equipment and avoid customs tax. It is not uncommon for relatives of government officials to take shares in a joint venture company with the main contractor; dividends or other disbursements to relatives are used to gain advantage with the official.

I consider that, when it comes to tackling this issue, much of the problem lies in the fact that often senior personnel believe facilitation payments and small bribes are the only way to get things done in some parts of the world. A culture of reluctance to attack the issue head-on also prevails. The working – but often untested – assumption, is that employees know how they should operate and that to challenge them would only lead to mutual embarrassment.

So what is to be done?

Too often, business people in new markets make assumptions that they need to pay facilitating commissions and fees to obtain licences or exploration opportunities. However, I have seen several situations where such payments to a third party consultancy never reach the government officials they were intended for; the entity paying the amount was duped into believing it was necessary to win the bid.

The major challenge businesses face therefore, is re-mediating a culture where paying bribes – often indirectly through third parties – has become acceptable, or where the local culture is poorly understood, such as when entering new markets. While a greater emphasis on ethical behaviour is almost certainly needed, the proactive handling of the digital tools available – namely data analytics – can also assist in the suppression of corrupt practices.

Getting the data to speak

It is important that the use of data analytics is embraced more readily. Certain transactions jump out at you: those where the commission to agents is particularly high, where split or offshore payments are made, those in which amounts are non-contractual, and where information on what was delivered is cryptic or poorly documented.

Past data can be analysed in order to understand and prevent recurring patterns of corruption. But regular proactive analysis can prevent high-risk payments from being processed. In my experience, whilst whistle blowing is fairly widespread, few companies have precautionary measures in place and use analysis of data to vet high-risk payments.

So, I look forward to the day when companies seek to reinforce their messages through sharing ethical stories to encourage behavioural standards in their organisations. This, supported by the profiling of high-risk transactions, could go a long way to reinforcing an anti-bribery and corruption culture in many businesses that are trading globally.