The agreement, which was drawn up with Transparency International and the Basel Institute on Governance, was signed under the auspices of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which held its traditional annual meeting last week in the Swiss resort city of Davos.

Under the agreement, the firms will adopt a zero tolerance policy on bribery and will develop the internal systems and controls needed to implement the policy.

The 19 firms that signed the compact had combined annual revenues of more than $70 billion, the WEF said.

M&R has an annual turnover of over R10 billion. Aveng, which owns construction giant Grinaker LTA and cement producer Alpha, had an annual turnover of more than R13 billion last year.

The rest of the list of signatories includes household names such as Swiss giant ABB, Liechtenstein-based Hilti, Fluor from the US and Skanska of Sweden.