Two significant gaps remain in the system outlined above. One is generating the incentives to put these institutions into place. The other is finding the resources to enable these institutions to function effectively. For most developing countries where corruption has been widespread, if not endemic, these problems require extensive international scrutiny and support. International donors and even corporate actors need to monitor systematically the conduct of governments and public officials with whom they do business.
Effective monitoring requires coordination and information sharing.
Businesses and donor organizations should have a central international agency to which they can report demands for bribes and other improper conduct by public officials in any particular country. Because bribery is an exchange that requires a giver as well as taker, an honest public official should equally have an international place to which he can report an offer of a bribe from an international firm. An institution that is universally respected ought at least to gather this information, if not investigate it. Now that the OECD has adopted a convention banning bribery in international business transactions, the time is ripe. Increasingly, in a global economy, corrupt transactions transcend borders.