Financial Times

Business leaders urged not to give bribes

By Duruthu Edirimuni

"Thou shall not bribe," Jermyn P. Brooks of Transparency International told a group of business leaders in Colombo last week.

This motto should reflect the zero tolerance policy adopted by corporations and institutions in relation to bribes, he said at a forum on 'Business Principles for Countering Bribery' organised by Transparency International (TI) and the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

"The private sector can no longer ignore bribery without risking serious and domestic consequences," he said.

"The risks to companies arising from bribery have been highlighted in the past year by high profile corporate scandals that have led to increasing public concern and debate about the governance and accountability of business and the corporate executive behaviour."

The newly released 'Business Principles for Countering Bribery' have been developed by an international steering committee consisting of companies, academia and trade unions. It was supported by TI, a Berlin-based organisation set up to fight corruption, in partnership with Social Accountability International, a non-profit, independent organisation seeking to improve workplaces and communities around the world.

Brooks classified the forms of bribery as political contributions, charitable contributions, facilitation payments and gifts including hospitality and expenses.

"An enterprise should develop a programme for countering bribery reflecting its size, business sector, potential risks and areas of operation and should analyse which areas pose the greatest risks from bribery.

"It must be consistent with all laws relevant to countering bribery in all the jurisdictions in which the enterprise operates addressing the most prevalent forms of bribery in the organisation," he said.

Brooks emphasised that the company should clearly state that no employee will be demoted, face penalty or other adverse consequences for refusing to pay bribes despite the company losing business.

"To be effective the programme should rely on employees and others to raise concerns and violations as early as possible and the company should provide secure and accessible channels through which employees and others should feel able to raise concerns and report violations and indulge in whistle-blowing in confidence and without risk of reprisal," he said.

Brooks stressed that the programme should deal with prohibiting an offer, gift or accepting of a bribe in any form and should be applied in the firm's dealings with subsidiaries, joint venture partners, agents, contractors and other third parties with whom it has business relationships.

He said that the company should subject its internal control systems, especially its accounting and record keeping practices, to regular audits to provide assurance that they are effective in countering bribery.

"Any official from a member country of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development paying a bribe to a public officer can be reported to the respective embassy in that particular country," Brooks said.

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