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'Asian firms more likely to offer bribes'

Companies from Asia -- in particular those in Greater China -- were among the most likely to offer or pay bribes to foreign officials, a Berlin-based watchdog group said on Tuesday.

Six of the 10 countries and territories, where businesses were most likely to bribe overseas officials, were in Asia in the Bribe Payers Index compiled by Transparency International.

Russian companies took the dubious honour of being the most likely to pay bribes according to the survey, followed closely by those in China and Taiwan.

Hot on their heels were firms from South Korea, Italy, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan and the United States.

The index gauges the willingness of multinational firms from 21 leading exporting territories to bribe senior public officials in 15 emerging economies, as perceived by 835 respondents who were top executives from foreign and domestic firms and professionals based in the 15 countries.

Bribes from foreign firms to senior government officials was also seen to have increased in the past three years.

"Today's BPI underscores the fact that we have a global problem of corporate bribe-paying," Kamal Hossain, chairman of the Transparency International Advisory Council, told a news conference in Hong Kong.

He did not offer explanations for why firms in several Asian firms were found to have such a high propensity for bribery in the survey.

"The results...point to the rejection by multinational firms of the spirit of international anti-bribery conventions,"

"The BPI shows that the most flagrant corruption is seen in the public works/construction and arms and defence sectors, which are plagued by endemic bribery by foreign firms," Hossain said.

No prosecutions

The first index was compiled in 1999 on the eve of the enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention which, for the first time, made bribing foreign public officials a crime in most of the leading industrial countries where the majority of multinationals have their headquarters.

"There has yet to be a single prosecution under the legislation enacted following the signing of the Convention," Hossain said.

"OECD member governments ought to make a pledge at this week's ministerial meeting in Paris to provide the framework and resources to ensure that investigations are pursued and brought before the courts to make companies and individuals aware that corruption will be punished," he said.

Domestic firms in the 15 surveyed countries were perceived to have an even greater tendency than their foreign counterparts to bribe senior public officials, with a score of 1.9.

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