BERLIN, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Some of the world's largest companies offer little or no financial information other than required by their home countries, a watchdog group reported Tuesday.
Berlin-based Transparency International, a non-government organization which monitors political and corporate corruption, warned in a 40-page report ranking 124 global corporations that some oil, gas and mining companies were not prepared to follow European Union regulations, starting in July 2015, regarding transparency. They have yet to comply with country-by-country and project-by-project tax payments, for example.
The Italian energy company Eni, Britain's Vodaphone cellphone service, and Norway's energy company Statoil ranked highest in availability of information and efforts to prevent corruption. The three lowest were China's Bank of Communications, Japan's Honda car company and the Bank of China.
Surprisingly, some U.S. technology companies were low-ranked.
"The sector that makes greater transparency possible is one of the least transparent. US tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google and IBM all score less than three out of 10. Amazon, Apple and Google are among seven U.S. 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 U.S. company that is silent on its policy on gifts, hospitality and expenses, as well as on the channels it provides for whistle blowers," the report stated.
