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THE world’s biggest companies disclose little or no financial details about their operations outside their home countries, watchdog Transparency International (TI) said in a report that ranks 124 firms and found that Chinese companies and several US technology giants were among the worst.

The watchdog warned that the biggest oil, gas and mining companies were not ready for the kind of transparency rules that will soon come into force across the EU.

The regulations require extractive companies to report payments such as taxes to governments on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis.

The companies, with a combined market value of more than $14tn, were assigned rankings based on their reporting of measures taken to prevent corruption, information about subsidiaries and holdings, and key financial information about overseas operations.

The top three were Italian energy group Eni, Britain’s Vodafone and Norway’s Statoil. The bottoms three were China’s Bank of Communications, Japanese carmaker Honda and Bank of China.

Ninety of the 124 companies, drawn from the Forbes list of the world’s biggest publicly traded companies, do not disclose the taxes they pay in foreign countries, while 54 disclose no information on their revenues in other countries, TI said.

The report’s authors drew attention to the poor score for several technology giants, including Amazon and Google.

“US tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google and IBM all score less than three out of 10,” TI said. “Amazon, Apple and Google are among seven US companies whose company leadership doesn’t publicly demonstrate support for anti-corruption on their website.

“Neither Amazon nor Apple say whether they have anti-corruption training for staff. Amazon is the only US company that is silent on its policy on gifts, hospitality and expenses, as well as on the channels it provides for whistleblowers.”

However, TI said all 44 US companies assessed enabled staff to report corruption.

Another American firm, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, also performed badly, languishing sixth from bottom in the rankings.

Only one company, Vodafone, scored more than 50 percent in all three categories. Seven of the top 10 companies were from Europe, while eight of the bottom 10 were from Asia, including China Construction Bank and offshore oil and gas explorer CNOOC.

“We need more transparency from multinational companies, whose power in the world economy closely rivals the biggest countries,” said TI’s chairman José Ugaz.

“With greater economic power comes greater responsibility. Bad corporate behaviour creates the corruption that causes poverty and instability. By not responding to people’s demands for greater transparency and accountability, companies risk harming their brand and losing customers.

“Companies have to provide more information on their financial operations. Transparency allows citizens to find out the extent of a company’s operations in their country. It is also essential to follow money flows between governments and companies, who can be subject to corruption.” said TI said all 13 UK companies assessed performed strongly on anti-corruption measures by publicly committing to comply with anti-corruption laws and instituting whistle blowing measures. The report noted that a 2011 law prohibiting bribery encouraged many firms to tighten their procedures.

All eight Chinese companies scored less than three out of 10, and the report’s authors said the leadership in six of the eight companies did not publicly support measures against corruption, none explicitly banned the payment of small bribes to gain favours, and none disclosed financial data in any of the 59 companies where they operate. – theguardian.com