Maritime anti-corruption network to develop port integrity index

THE Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN) has announced a new partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark to develop the first ever Global Port Integrity Index and to scale up its collective action activities in West Africa.

MACN, a global business network of over 110 companies, says the Index will provide an overview and comparison of illicit demands in ports around the world. It will be based on the unique first-hand data gathered from captains calling port around the world through MACN’s Anonymous Incident Reporting Mechanism. To date, MACN has collected over 28,000 reports of corruption in ports.

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The partnership with Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also allow MACN to expand its collective action program in West Africa and to deepen its current engagement in the region. MACN has been active in Nigeria since 2011 and has, in collaboration with the Convention on Business Integrity (an internationally-recognised NGO specialized in ethics and anti-corruption in West Africa), worked to promote integrity and good governance in the port sector in Nigeria. Actions to date have included the training of over 1,000 government officials in the ports of Lagos, Calabar, Onne and Port-Harcourt.

Through the new project, MACN will work with the international and local maritime industry and with key government authorities in Nigeria to improve the business climate and reduce corruption in the port and maritime sector.

“Through the support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, MACN can take our world-leading incident data to the next level and turn it into a powerful advocacy tool. This index will be instrumental in highlighting the need for further investments and initiatives addressing integrity challenges in ports to promote fair global trade,” says Cecilia Müller Torbrand, Executive Director of MACN.

“Increasing transparency and ease of doing business in the port and maritime sector is a political priority of the Nigerian government, and a network like MACN has a key role to play in enabling change that is both business-friendly and that promotes integrity and business ethics,” says Soji Apampa, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Convention on Business Integrity. “The members of MACN have significant commercial buying power when acting collectively. This is important for incentivizing local stakeholder from both the public and private sector to engage with us and actively address corruption.”