(page 1 of 4)Transparency International releases new Bribe Payers IndexRussian, Chinese, Taiwanese and S. Korean companieswidely seen using bribes in developing countriesHigh propensity to bribe overseas also seen for companies from Italy,Hong Kong, Malaysia, United States, Japan, France and SpainConstruction and arms industries top sectors of heaviest bribery14 May 2002 --- Transparency International (TI), the global anti-corruption organisation, todayreleased its Bribe Payers Index (BPI) 2002, showing very high levels of bribery in developing countriesby corporations from Russia, China, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as numerous leading industrialnations, all of which now have laws making corrupt payments to foreign officials a crime. “The laws arenot being properly enforced. Our new survey leaves no doubt that large numbers of multinationalcorporations from the richest nations are pursuing a criminal course to win contracts in the leadingemerging market economies of the world,” said TI Chairman Peter Eigen.Speaking in Paris today, on the eve of this year’s Ministerial meeting of OECD member countries,Eigen added: “Politicians and public officials from the world’s leading industrial countries are ignoringthe rot in their own backyards and the criminal bribe-paying activities of multinational firmsheadquartered in their countries, while increasingly focusing on the high level of corruption indeveloping countries. The governments of the richest nations continue to fail to recognise the rampantundermining of fair global trade by bribe-paying multinational enterprises. “He said: “The meeting in the coming days of ministers at the Organisation for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) and then the G8 Summit provide the leaders of the industrial world with anopportunity to confront this critical situation.”1The TI Chairman stressed that today’s BPI shows that companies from Russia and China, which areincreasingly exporting to other emerging market countries, are using bribes “on an exceptional andintolerable scale. The extent to which companies from Taiwan and South Korea use bribes abroad isonly marginally less. The authorities of all of these countries need to do more to prevent bribery bytheir firms abroad.” 1 The OECD Ministerial takes place in Paris on May 15-16, and the G8 Summit will be held in Canadaon June 26-27, 2002PRESS RELEASEMedia Contacts:Berlin: Head of Public Relations Jeff Lovitt,Tel: +49 30 3438 2045Hong Kong: Press Officer Sarah Tyler +49 162 781 4002.Paris: Press Officer Jana Kotalik, Head of Research FredrikGaltung, Tel: +44 7979 648877Email: [email protected]: TI Vice Chairman Frank Vogl,Tel: +1 202 331 8183, Fax: +1 202 331 8187,Email: [email protected] coalition against corruptionhttp://www.transparency.orgOtto-Suhr-Allee 97-99,10585 Berlin, GermanyTel: +49-30-3438 2019Fax: +49-30-3470 3912Embargoed for: 11.00 Central European Summer Time (05.00 a.m. Eastern Standard U.S. time, 17.00 Hong Kong), 14 May 2002TI BPI press release 14 May 2002 (page 2 of 4)TI’s BPI is based on surveys conducted in 15 emerging market economies by Gallup InternationalAssociation.The BPI shows that US multinational corporations, which have faced the risk of criminal prosecutionsince 1977 under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, have a high propensity to pay bribes to foreigngovernment officials. The US score of 5.3 out of a best possible clean 10 is matched by Japanesecompanies and is worse than the scores for corporations from France, Spain, Germany, Singaporeand the United Kingdom. The highest scores, indicating the lowest propensity to bribe abroad, were forcompanies from Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium.The TI Bribe Payers survey is the most comprehensive set of opinion polls on perceptions of thesources of corruption that has ever been undertaken and expands on the first TI BPI in 1999. Today’sresults provide detailed reports on the propensity of multinational corporations to bribe; the businesssectors most contaminated by bribery; the extent to which executives of major corporations overseasare even aware of the landmark OECD Anti-Bribery Convention that outlawed bribery of foreign publicofficials; the degree to which these firms are enforcing compliance with the Convention; andperceptions of unfair business practices apart from bribery used by firms to gain contracts.The BPI was conducted in 15 emerging market economies: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Hungary,India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Koreaand Thailand, which are among the very largest such countries involved in trade and investment withmultinational firms. A total of 835 interviews were carried out between December 2001 and March2002, principally with senior executives of domestic and foreign companies, but also with executives atchartered accountancies, binational chambers of commerce, national and foreign commercial banksand commercial law firms. The survey questions related to perceptions about multinational firms from21 countries.“The results reflect the views of expert business leaders, who are best positioned to have significantinsights into issues of grand corruption and the bribery of government officials in developing countries,”said TI Head of Research Fredrik Galtung.=============================================================================The Transparency International Bribe Payers Index 2002835 business experts in 15 leading emerging market countries were asked: In the business sectorswith which you are most familiar, please indicate how likely companies from the following countries areto pay or offer bribes to win or retain business in this country?A perfect score, indicating zero perceived propensity to pay bribes, is 10.0, and thus the ranking below startswith companies from countries that are seen to have a low propensity for foreign bribe paying. All the survey dataindicated that domestically owned companies in the 15 countries surveyed have a very high propensity to paybribes – higher than that of foreign firms.Rank Score Rank Score1Australia 8.512France 5.5Sweden 8.4 United States 5.32Switzerland 8.413Japan 5.34Austria 8.2 Malaysia 4.35Canada 8.115Hong Kong 4.3Netherlands 7.817Italy 4.16Belgium 7.818South Korea 3.98United Kingdom 6.919Taiwan 3.8Singapore 6.320People’s Republic of China 3.59Germany 6.321Russia
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