Bribery and the Government

More than one in four people across the globe paid a bribe in the last 12 months when interacting with key public institutions and services, with the police and the judiciary seen as the two most bribery prone, according to a new report.

The largest-ever global survey on corruption by Transparency International, which surveyed more than 114,000 respondents in 107 countries, found that over half the respondents said corruption had worsened over the last two years.

The survey comes at a time of increased public anger against the perceived corruption and self-interest of governments, from Brazil to Egypt and Turkey. It revealed a deep distrust of political leaders. In 51 countries around the world political parties were seen as the most corrupt institution and 55 percent of respondents thought government was run by special interests.

"Around the world, political parties, the driving force of democracies, are perceived to be the most corrupt institution," the report said.

Before the financial crisis began in 2008, 31 percent of people said their government's efforts to fight corruption were effective. This year, only 22 percent thought government responses were adequate. Transparency International chief Huguette Labelle said politicians needed "to take this cry against corruption from their citizenry seriously."

"Strong leadership is needed from the G20 governments in particular. In the 17 countries surveyed in the G20, 59 percent of respondents said their government is not doing a good job at fighting corruption," she said.

Twenty seven percent of respondents said they had paid a bribe when accessing public services and institutions in the last 12 months, revealing no improvement from previous surveys.

Despite the frequency of encounters with corruption, almost 9 out of 10 people surveyed said they would act against corruption and two-thirds of those who were asked to pay a bribe had refused, the survey found.

"Bribe paying levels remain very high worldwide, but people believe they have the power to stop corruption and the number of those willing to combat the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery is significant," Labelle said.

Problematically, the survey revealed that many people did not trust the institutions meant to fight corruption. In 36 countries, the police was seen as the most corrupt institution and in those countries an average of 53 percent of people had been asked to pay a bribe to the police.

Meanwhile, 20 countries saw the judiciary as the most corrupt institution, and in those countries an average of 30 percent of the people who had come in contact with the judicial systems had been asked to pay a bribe.

Bribery occurs on all levels of the government within the United States as well as in other countries. Unfortunately, a large number of bribes each year go undetected, resulting in no charges or convictions upon the guilty parties.

The different levels and types of bribery are clearly defined under United States law. The first type is the bribery by or of a public official, who is someone who acts on behalf of the United States, such as a juror or a senator. The intention of the bribe is to influence the action of the official in the discharge of their public or legal duties – in other words, a bribe might be given to a senator to encourage them to vote a certain way on a bill, or to a juror in order to solicit a particular outcome in a trial. A public official who is convicted of bribery will be fined three times the amount of the bribe and/or imprisoned for no longer than 15 years. The public official will also not be allowed thereafter to hold any government or political office in the United States.

The next type of a bribe is by/of a witness. A witness will receive a fine of three times the amount of the bribe and/or up to 15 years in prison if they accept a bribe for them to alter a testimony. The briber themselves will face a fine and up to two years in prison.

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977 makes it unlawful for a United States citizen, as well as certain foreign issuers of securities, to pay a foreign official in order to obtain business with any person. In 1998 a provision to the Act was added which applies to any foreign firms or foreign-born persons who take any act in furtherance of a corrupt payment while in the United States.

Others may be found guilty of taking bribes as well. If a bank representative accepts a bribe of anything more than $1,000, he or she can be imprisoned for no longer than 30 years, and fined three times the value of the bribe. Sporting officials are also sometimes offered bribes to "fix" a sporting event to ensure an outcome that the briber desires. If a referee or other sporting official is convicted or bribery, the punishment can consist of a fine and imprisonment of no longer than five years.

There are many bribery-related offenses with which an individual may be charged. Some of these include government fraud, extortion, kickbacks, procurement fraud, the health care industry and employee benefits or pension plans, and many others. Each of these offenses will result in punishment or sentencing that reflects the severity of the actual crime that has been committed.

Perhaps one of the most common reasons that bribery takes place is to receive unlawful commissions or pay. This is sometimes referred to as a kickback. Often, kickbacks go undetected. However, financial documents within a company or corporation will sometimes serve as substantial evidence in a criminal case to convict the guilty parties of bribery.

Some famous examples of bribery include a federal case in which two former Pentagon officials were sentenced to 24 years in prison after making $1 million and being provided with prostitutes; and the case of an army major who worked as a contracting officer, and who accepted bribes from military contractors that totalled $9.6 million.

Those facing bribery or other related charges should hire an attorney, regardless of their guilt. The punishments for bribery can be severe and having a professional that can handle the case will be of great assistance. When hiring an attorney for a bribery case, it is imperative that he or she has plenty of experience handling similar cases. It may be wise to ask the attorney questions regarding their experience with related cases. An attorney's fees for handling a bribery case in a criminal case will vary, depending on many factors.

Every state, directly or indirectly, prohibits bribery in obtaining government contracts. But few states restrict campaign contributions from businesses seeking government contracts. We need more laws that stop this "pay-to-play" abuse. Government contracts should go to the companies that do the best work for the lowest prices, not the ones that have cozied up to public officials with campaign cash.

Also, enforcement of existing laws is often lacking. It's often unclear who is even responsiible for enforcing the law — the state ethics agency, the state elections agency, or the state contracting agent. This also means that penalties for violating the law are often unclear because penalties for violating the elections code are often different from penalties for contracting abuses.

Public Citizen supports well-targeted pay-to-play restrictions to foster fair and open competition in the contracting process and to eliminate corruption — and the appearance of corruption.

TYPES OF BRIBERY

Common Forms of Bribery

bribe

  [brahyb]  Show IPA noun, verb, bribed, brib·ing.

noun

1.

money or any other valuable consideration given or promised with a view to  corrupting the behavior of a person, especially in that person's performance as  an athlete, public official, etc.: The motorist offered the arresting officer a bribe  to let him go.

2.

anything given or serving to persuade or induce: The children were given candy  as a bribe to be good.

verb (used with object)

3.

to give or promise a bribe to: They bribed the reporter to forget about what he  had seen.

4.

to influence or corrupt by a bribe: The judge was too honest to be bribed.

verb (used without object)

5.

to give a bribe; practice bribery.

Origin: 
1350–1400; Middle English  < Middle French:  remnant of food givenas alms, said to be < an expressive base *bri ( m ) b-  denotingsomething small

Bribery is a white collar crime in which money, a favor or something else of value is promised to, given to, or taken from an individual or corporation in an attempt to sway his or its views, opinions, or decisions.

For example, if an electoral candidate offered bottles of liquor in exchange for votes, it would be considered a bribe, and therefore, a crime.

Bribery is a crime in which one party offers another party a gift in exchange for preferential treatment in their legal or professional duties. While bribery can take many forms, those facing bribery charges of any type should take these accusations seriously, as conviction can come with strict penalties. The standard fine can be up to three times the value of the bribe in question and some cases can also result in lengthy jail sentences.

If you have been accused of bribery, it is of the utmost importance that you get an attorney who can protect your legal rights and interests.

Types of Bribery

Bribes can take many forms and can occur in many different fields. Some of the more common instances of bribery include:

Bribery of Witnesses in Court

Bribery of a Public Official

Bribery of Doctors

Bribery of Foreign Officials

A bribery charge can reach a felony level, where the punishments are the most severe. However, an experienced attorney may be able to have the charges against you decreased in severity or in some instances, may be able to have the charges dismissed altogether.

Bribery by / of a Public Official

Any public official (anyone acting on behalf of the United States, such as a senator, witness, or juror) who demands, receives, or accepts a bribe in exchange for orchestrating an illegal change in his duties will be fined not more than three times the value of the incentive and/or imprisoned for no more than 15 years. The public official may also be prohibited from holding any political or government office in the United States.

Bribery by / of a Witness

Conversely, anyone who offers a bribe to a public official will be fined and/or imprisoned for no more than two years.
Any witness who demands, receives, or accepts a bribe in exchange for altered testimony faces a fine of three times the value of the bribe and/or up to 15 years in prison, while anyone who bribes a witness faces a fine and/or up to two years in prison.

Bribery of a Foreign Official

In 1977, The U.S. Congress passed The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which made it illegal for an American corporation to bribe a foreign government official with money or gifts in hopes of landing or maintaining important business contacts. According to the act, all publicly traded companies must keep records of all business transactions—even if the companies do not trade internationally—to ensure that this act is not being violated.

However, in the act, there are loopholes of which many U.S. corporations take advantage. For example, the act permits “grease payments”, which are incentives paid—without penalty—to foreign officials to help expedite the completion of paperwork and to ensure the receipt of licenses or permits.

Bank Bribery

According to the Bank Bribery Amendments Act of 1985, 1) the solicitation of an employee, director, etc. in any capacity in exchange for business and 2) the acceptance of anything (including meals, entertainment, and accommodations during travel) but a legitimate salary, wages and fees from anyone in connection with the bank’s business are prohibited. If any representative of a bank accepts a bribe, he will be fined three times the value of the incentive, or he will be imprisoned for not more than thirty years. However, if the value of the bribe is less than $1,000, the representative will be fined but sentenced to not more than one year in jail.

If a bank official is offered a bribe, he must disclose all information to the bank so that the situation may be addressed appropriately.

Bribery in Sporting Contests

A sporting official who accepts a bribe in exchange for a promise to “fix” a sporting event is guilty of bribery and may be punished under Title 18 of the United States Code, Sect. 224. For example, if a referee is convicted of “throwing” a major sporting event, he will be fined, imprisoned for up to five years, or both.

Industries Prone to Bribery

Kickbacks are often associated with government fraud. The crime is committed in a variety of settings, however, including the healthcare industry and employee benefit or pension plans.

Examples of Illegal Bribes / Kickbacks

A building contractor might kick back part of what he is paid to the government official responsible for selecting his company for the job.

A pharmaceutical or medical device company might offer free training or other benefits to doctors who prescribe its drug.

A benefit or pension provider might provide cash or another bonus to brokers who convince companies to choose their services over those of another provider.

Punishments for Bribery

Issuing or accepting bribes is a serious crime that may result in heavy fines or several years in prison. Both civil and criminal charges can be levied against those suspected of being involved in kickback schemes.

The Anti-Kickback Act of 1986 prohibits government contractors and subcontractors from issuing or accepting kickbacks. If a contractor or subcontractor forces an employee to kick back part of his or her compensation, the contractor may face a $5000 fine and/or five years in prison. 

Different Forms of Bribery

Bribery, as defined by Black's Law Dictionary, is "The receiving or offering of any undue reward by or to any person whomsoever, whose ordinary profession or business related to the administration of public justice, in order to influence his behavior in office, and to incline him to act contrary to his duty and the known rules of honesty and integrity." Put in other words, bribery is the use of money to induce another with power and official, legal responsibility not to abuse that power, to then use that power in an abusive fashion.

Bribery does not include just money bribes, although money bribes are the most commonly recognized form of bribery. Bribery laws also restrict bribes involving transfers of rank, preferment, privilege, objects of value, or unfair advantages. To display how serious bribery is treated in American bribery laws, consider the following: in Article 2, Section 4 of the Constitution, bribery is cited as one of only two crimes which, when committed, should immediately lead to the impeachment of the offending President, Vice-President, or any other officer of the law to have committed it, either by offering bribes or accepting them. The other crime? Treason.

Today, bribery laws generally bear certain common traits concerning how bribery is to be treated. According to law.jrank.org, these common traits are, first, that bribery laws apply to both those giving bribes and those accepting bribes equally; second, that they apply to anyone working for the Government in any capacity, even a temporary one, including jurors and legislators; third, that bribery can be committed by the briber even if the individual being bribed is unaffected and does not take the bribe; and fourth, that they treat bribery not as a misdemeanor, but as a felony.

Bribery laws in America prevent officials from being influenced by bribes, but they also go so far as to disallow gifts for "official acts" performed by the legal officials in their jobs. Regardless of whether these gifts were given with intent to manipulate, both offering and accepting such gifts falls under the domain of bribery.

A form of bribery laws in America, anti-corruption laws, often deal with campaign contributions, limiting them and directing them towards certain legal forms, such that politicians theoretically will not be bribed by lobbyists or others to change their policies as the lobbyists desire. Violations of these laws, however, are often interpreted as misdemeanors, instead of felonies, and are often construed in a different light than bribery.

Most bribery cases come to light only because of either particularly egregious violations of bribery laws which cannot go ignored or political investigation on the part of political opponents. Despite the harshness of bribery laws, the punishments of those laws have not been enforced in all cases unequivocally, and as a result, America's methods of dealing with bribery are a little more in flux than they might seem at first.

Regardless, however, clear and blatant acts of bribery will undoubtedly go noticed and will be punished to the fullest extent of the law, especially after so many famous instances of political corruption, including Watergate. Indeed, after Watergate, a number of programs sought discovery and prosecution of those who had either made or accepted bribes.

Bribery, as one of the most constant threats to the correct functioning of the American governmental system, remains one of the clearest possible violations of the law that any public official might make, especially now in the times of major companies with plenty of money available for strong bribes.

  

BRIBERY IN THE WORLD

How Bribery and Other Types of Corruption Threaten the Global Marketplace

In Turkey, the apartment buildings that collapse during earthquakes are known as "bribe buildings." In Africa, bridges dot the landscape with no roads to connect them.

There's no doubt that corruption, endemic in emerging economies around the world, throws economic development into chaos. It affects decisions made by bureaucrats, degrades the quality of those in power, and discourages foreign investment. It's also an increasingly hot business topic, with a growing number of influential business and political leaders from around the globe regularly pinpointing corruption as one of the greatest threats to global economic development.

"Corruption and bribery have moved to the forefront in discussions about business," says Wharton legal studies professor Philip M. Nichols. "The list of countries that have been politically or economically crippled by corruption continues to grow, and businesses with long-term interests abroad will ultimately be harmed by any plans that include bribery."

Nichols, the author of more than 10 studies and theoretical writings on the implications and mechanics of corruption, has spent the past decade studying corruption in such nations as France, Belize, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Bulgaria. Most recently, he examined perceptions of corruption in Mongolia, where he lived for a year while studying and teaching on a Fulbright Scholarship. In September, Nichols offered anti-corruption strategies to entrepreneurs at a national conference in St. Petersburg, Russia. Last month he led a weeklong seminar on corruption in Tashkent, Uzbekistan run by the Resource Network for Economic and Business Education. "A decade ago, corruption was not a proper subject for polite scholars or policymakers," Nichols and his co-authors wrote in a recent research paper. "Today, the creation of and comment on anti-corruption regimes is a growth industry."

Bribery, of course, is the most widespread form of corruption, and corporate strategies for dealing with bribe requests vary. According to Nichols, some companies opt to pay, sometimes damaging their public images and making it more difficult to refuse future requests. Others have the sheer bulk and revenues to successfully and consistently say "no." Oil giant Texaco, for example, has such a formidable reputation for refusing to pay bribes that its jeeps are often waved through even remote African border crossings without paying a penny.

A key, Nichols suggests, is wiring this no-bribe ideal into a corporation's culture, starting with a corporate code for managers and employees, affiliates and potential business partners. But coming to grips with what appears to be an international groundswell of corruption is far from a simple matter. Nichols believes that unraveling and explaining the mechanics of corruption is critical to helping the growing body of government and corporate organizations trying to fight it.

His research on Mongolia, for instance, compared views of corruption in Mongolia and Bulgaria, two countries at the opposite ends of the former Soviet empire. The study revealed that university students in both countries had nearly identical ideas and perceptions about corruption, something Nichols found surprising. "This does not support the idea that corruption is a completely relative cultural construct," he says. For those in the field trying to study and control corruption, it's interesting to see that there might be "a shared understanding" of it.

On a practical level, what does the upswing in international corruption mean to a company? "The fact that a great number of government officials in a great number of countries, including some potentially large markets, seem to demand bribes is critical to any business that has a cross-border presence," says Nichols. "Then there's the reality that more than 20 nations, including the wealthiest and most-active trading nations, have made bribe paying illegal, and the fact that despite this there are still competitors who will pay bribes.

"These facts combined make for some extremely difficult terrain. Officials expect you to pay bribes, some of your competitors will pay them, but you might go to jail if you do."

The ‘Corruption Perception Index'

Much of the comparative evidence about bribery is anecdotal, though Nichols alone can cite numerous instances. In Kazakhstan, several foreign businesses have told Nichols that the typical bribe amount that must be given to win approval of a large construction project is between 15% and 20% of the contract price – which often means that the bribe alone will amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. In Russia, meanwhile, a retail chain manager told Nichols that a bribe of US $4,000 would lower the tariff on a truckload of printer cartridges from U.S. $20,000 to U.S. $4,000.

International businessmen and women say the number of countries in which they expect big bribe demands has risen staggeringly. A recent study by Berlin-based Transparency International pegged 70 of 102 countries surveyed as likely places for executives to be hit up for bribes. TI's "Corruption Perception Index" incorporates data from surveys, polls and other ratings on the number of bribe requests perceived by business people who regularly conduct business in a given country. A score of 10 means people perceive that bribe requests are never made in a particular nation, while a zero indicates the perception that bribes are always requested.

In the 2002 index, Finland scored a 9.7, the United Kingdom came in at 8.7 and the U.S. earned a 7.7. With 70 of 102 countries scoring 5.0 or lower, however, the index shows that business people believe bribe requests are likely to be made in more than two-thirds of the nations examined. These countries include some of the world's biggest: China, which scored 3.5; India, 2.7; Indonesia, 1.9; and Pakistan, 2.6. Bangladesh had the lowest score of 1.2.

Two treaties governing the northern and western hemispheres will soon weave a comprehensive system of laws prohibiting the payment of bribes to foreign government officials. Countries like Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Japan, Korea and the UK are bound by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development convention to criminalize transnational bribery. Three years ago the U.S. alone criminalized paying bribes abroad. Today at least 20 countries have such laws and 14 more will soon enact them. The Organization of American States' Inter-American Convention against Corruption, signed by most countries in the Americas in 1996, also requires members to criminalize transnational bribery.

Nichols speculates that once the public outcry against paying bribes becomes as loud as it is for environmental issues, the risk for corporations willing to pay bribes will rise significantly. Already the penalties can be severe. In the U.S. they include incarceration, fines and disqualification from doing business with the U.S. government. A French proposal would impose a 15-year prison sentence on certain types of transnational bribery. Even in Norway, which has the least punitive of the new laws, bribery of foreign government officials is punishable by a year in jail.

The risk of prosecution is quite real, Nichols says. Both direct government investigations and reports by competitors can bring a corporation under the spotlight. The U.S., he adds, is believed to already be using intelligence agency reports from Latin America and the Middle East to track bribery. Further, competitors who wish to uphold high ethical standards have every motive to report another company for failing to do so.

Strategies for Saying No

Corporations, Nichols believes, must create a corporate culture that doggedly refuses bribe requests and establish clear corporate codes that employees unwaveringly adhere to. They must also assure managers that the company will back them when they refuse to pay."A company would be foolish not to develop two general strategies, one for dealing with bribe demands and another for dealing with competitors who offer bribes," he says. "The potential, in terms of criminal liability, skewed relationships, lost contracts, disqualification from government contracts, loss of reputation and so on is simply too great to ignore.

"Perhaps the most useful action a business can take is to really understand corruption, and to create and articulate a general response to corruption before it encounters difficult situations," Nichols says. "It's also useful for businesses to work together to create assurances that each will adhere to some agreed level of behavior."

Other risks and costs abound for companies that succumb to the bribery game, Nichols says. Because bribery is illegal, it is conducted behind closed doors, with those involved expending time and resources to keep their secret. "For obvious reasons, we have not really been able to study the quality of corrupt relationships," he says. "But those who have endured them often describe them as unhealthy, unstable and unenforceable." He adds that firms' reputations suffer when word ultimately leaks, as happened with those who conducted business with the family of former Indonesian President Suharto. Prior to and just following Suharto's 1998 resignation, the former leader, his children and associates were widely accused of taking advantage of benefits such as monopolies and tariff breaks to amass enormous personal wealth.

Companies also face the very real possibility of being pushed to pay more and more bribes as their reputation as a bribe-payer spreads. "One European businessman told me that after his company made its first few payments, bribery became a part of the normal course of business because bureaucrats worldwide expected similar treatment," Nichols says. "This is far from uncommon."

Lastly, there are international trade implications surrounding bribery. Bribery degrades markets. Economist Paolo Mauro, in the article "Corruption and Growth," finds a direct link between high levels of corruption and low levels of foreign direct investment. Though Mauro's work does not explain this finding, Nichols offers three likely reasons. "First, corruption actually increases the amount of time a company must spend with a bureaucracy; second, corruption makes it more difficult to obtain information, which increases transaction costs, and third, corrupt relationships are less predictable and less enforceable. There's probably a fourth reason too, which is that most business people are good people and have a distaste for endemically corrupt environments," he says.

"Corruption also drastically affects economic development by causing a misallocation of resources. Yes, Africa is littered with bridges instead of hospitals. But more damaging is the fact that in endemically corrupt systems, regular people are not getting served by the government; they don't trust the government so they don't interact with the government," Nichols says. "But people have to get things done. So they create their own systems to do things, such as resolve disputes or enforce contacts or even police neighborhoods."

These systems, however, "are not free," Nichols adds. "They cost money. So money goes to supporting the government system and money goes to supporting the shadow system; twice as much money goes to bureaucracies as it should. That means money is not going to increasing food production, or to health, or to enlarging the economy. And that stinks."

BRIBERY

Bribery is an act of giving something like money ,etc to someone so as to influence that person's views or conduct.

Bribery is the act of offering or accepting something of value ( giving money or gift giving ), in a situation where the person who accepts the bribe is expected to perform a service which goes beyond his or her normal job description ,that alters the behavior of the recipient.

Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person in charge of a public or legal duty.

The bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipient's conduct. It may be any money, good,right in action, property, preferment, privilege, emolument, object of value, advantage, or merely a promise or undertaking to induce or influence the action, vote, or influence of a person in an official or public capacity.

In economics, the bribe has been described as rent. Bribery in bureaucracy has been viewed as a reason for the higher cost of production of goods and services.

A person who asks for or receives a bribe is considered as equally guilty as the person who offers it. Bribery is considered a crime by most governments.

For example, a motorist being ticketed for parking in the wrong place might offer a bribe to the police officer to ask him or her to tear up the ticket. In many regions of the world, bribery is considered a crime, and it can be severely punished.

In other areas, bribery is more socially acceptable, which can place a heavy burden on those in the lower ranks of society, as they cannot afford to bribe officials in the style to which they are accustomed.

Any number of things can be used as a bribe. While money is a classic bribe, bribes can also be more intangible, and they might include things like offers of real estate, valuable objects, or a promise to perform a particular service in the future.

In order to be considered a bribe, the object of value must be offered and accepted with the understanding that the person who accepts the bribe will be doing something in return. This differentiates bribes from gifts offered in genuine good will, and also distinguishes bribery from tipping, a practice in which gifts are offered in return for good service.

In regions where officials are particularly corrupt, they may come to expect “grease money” to perform tasks which are actually part of their job descriptions, such as reviewing visa applications or inspecting materials being brought through customs. In these instances, people from regions where bribery is illegal may be allowed to offer grease money, with the understanding that otherwise, the task will never be accomplished.

Bribery can be on a very thin line, and cultural differences can sometimes lead to confusion. In some cultures, for example, offering a tip may be considered a bribe, while in others, a failure to tip would be construed as offensive.

The complex Middle Eastern tradition of baksheesh is an example of a confusing situation; baksheesh is not viewed as bribery in the Middle East, and in fact a well-established system of bribery exists in some Middle Eastern countries, and it is entirely differentiated from baksheesh by local citizens.

Depending on regional laws, bribery can be prosecuted and punished with fines, jail time, or compensation. Especially in countries which are based on egalitarian ideals, bribery is often viewed as especially offensive, since it erases the illusion that all members of society are equal when someone can essentially buy the favors or skills of someone else with the right bribe.