Corporate registers should be required to collect and publish digitally sufficiently detailed data to create a transparent, sound business environment and allow anti-corruption investigations to be carried out with few if any barriers. This information is critical for building corporate structures and understanding who truly benefits from a business.
● International funding for development in anti-corruption, corporate integrity, corporate development or similar should be tied to a requirement that company data is freely and publicly available as open data. Without this the foundations of such work risk being on shaky foundations.
● Capacity should be built within local and international NGOs that allows the sort of data science work that Global Witness carried out to be performed by other NGOs.
● International norms such as those of FATF/OECD should recognize that the lack of detailed open company data in a jurisdiction is a significant risk factor when assessing potential for corruption and criminal activity