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The global coalition against corruption – Transparency International – hopes Sunday’s G20 closing statement in Brisbane will crackdown on dodgy shell companies illegally siphoning one trillion dollars to well known tax havens.

They say profit siphoning, tax havens and dodgy tendering leak five percent of each nation’s gross domestic product each year, according to the World Bank.

Anti-corruption policies have been developed by one of the seven working groups at the G20.

Transparency International describes secret companies or “shell companies” as the “getaway car for corrupt people wanting to avoid paying their taxes.”

“It’s the getaway car, but it’s the getaway car with blacked out windows,” Transparency International’s Berlin-based program co-ordinator Maggie Murphy said.

She said setting up shell companies was too easy.

“It is very easy to set up a company – it takes you less than an hour,” Ms Murphy said.

 “You can tick a few boxes and pay a few hundred dollars extra to ask for a nominee director – someone you have never met – to be the person on paper who signs the documents.

“Another bit of money will buy you a plaque on a door.”

Professor AJ Brown from Griffith University said the World Bank in 2001 identified that three-quarters – or 150 of the 213 – companies involved in corporate fraud cases, used “shell” companies to avoid tax.

“And the estimated proceeds of the corruption sought to be concealed in those cases was $US 56.4 billion,” Professor Brown said.

“So that is just a snapshot of the extent of the problem.”

Ms Murphy described a single building in Delaware in the United States that has 285,000 companies at a single address.

“It is just too easy to set up these companies and TI has been working very hard to crack down on the secrecy around these ownership structures,” she said.

Attorney General George Brandis in February 2014 listed tackling company ownership secrecy as one of his top priorities for 2014.

These initiatives were taken up by the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group and then taken on board in June by G20 policy “sherpas” who guide policy for the G20 summits held every 12 months.

“These beneficial ownership principles were adopted by sherpas in June, but we are not sure if they will be adopted by leaders,” Ms Murphy said.

It would be a major embarrassment to Australia if the tighter controls on company ownership – the beneficial ownership principles – were not taken up this week, she said.

“If it was delayed that would be a real disappointment for the Australian Government, because they have championed this right from the start,” she said.

The World Bank has also backed moves to tighten company ownership details by secret companies to tighten profit shifting and tax evasion.

Since June the G20 Anti-Corruption working group – co-chaired by Australia and Turkey – has developed a suite of controls to tackle fake businesses that hide billions in profits.

“If these were adopted it would be an incredible achievement on Australia’s part as well because of just how diverse the G20 countries are,” Berlin-based TI program co-ordinator Maggie Murphy said.

“Similar principles were adopted at the G8 level but to get that from a group of eight nations – most of whom see eye to eye on most issues – to get that to be adopted at G20 level, when you have people in the room such as Saudia Arabia, Russia, China, India, Germany – it is such a diverse group of countries – that would be a huge achievement for Australia.”

Ms Murphy will lead Transparency International’s response to the G20 summit decisions on Sunday afternoon.

Transparency International wants tighter controls on illegal tender processes, profit shifting, shell companies and tax havens so companies pay as little tax as possible.

The organisation reported last week that 73 per cent of the world’s largest companies – multinationals who operate in several countries – disclose no information about the amount of tax they pay foreign countries.

Victoria’s Greg Thompson, the executive director of Transparency International Australia, warned that Australia was not immune to dodgy tendering problems that siphoned millions of dollars from infrastructure projects.

“I live in Melbourne and with the Victorian election coming up and there was a commitment to a road link there without any transparency about the process of tendering, or the awarding of contracts,” Mr Thompson said.

Ms Murphy said Transparency International was optimistic the tighter controls on shell companies would be adopted by G20 world leaders.

They want G20 countries to adopt public registers that include public ownership details.

“We just think that one extra piece of information should be added – who is the real person who ultimately owns and controls this company.

“Not a nominee, not somebody that you have paid to sign a document, but the real, living person who owns and controls the company.”