The crime of bribery is the offer or gift of money, goods, or anything of value in order to influence federal, state, or local public officials in the discharge of their duties. Bribery of foreign government officials may violate the federal FOREIGN CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT. Commercial bribery in the business world is an unfair trade practice. Bribery is as old as civilization. One Egyptian pharaoh ruled that any priest or official taking a bribe was subject to the death penalty. One of the most widely reported bribery scandals involved International Olympic Committee officials accepting multimillion-dollar payments in exchange for their vote on locating the Winter 2002 Olympic Games. Bribery is known by many names. It is called dash in West Africa, la bustarella (the little envelope) in Italy, rishvat in India, and grease in the United States. The OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS (OGE) proscribes government officials from taking anything of value from individuals or organizations affected by their government duties. Under the RACKETEER INFLUENCED CORRUPT ORGANIZATION ACT, predicate offenses that can be used to establish a pattern of FRAUD (and thus prosecution under the act) include bribery. For businesses or government, detecting bribery is difficult, but a variety of “red flags” can be used to raise concern and investigation, including
• employee spending that surpasses INCOME
• unusually friendly relationships between an employee and an outside contractor
• employees who “stretch” or ignore standard operating procedures
• employees who repeatedly rationalize deficiencies on the part of suppliers
• employees who are under pressure due to external needs (family-member illness, drug or alcohol dependency, or gambling)
In 1999 the ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD) created a 17-article antibribery convention, which states:
Each Party shall take such measures as may be necessary to establish that it is a criminal offence under its law for any person intentionally to offer, promise or give any undue pecuniary or other advantage, whether directly or through intermediaries, to a foreign public official, for that official or for third party, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in relation to the performance of official duties, in order to obtain or retain business or other improper advantage in the conduct of international business.
Transparency International (TI), an organization that monitors international bribery, focuses on increasing awareness and providing information to individuals and institutions. TI has established an “Integrity Pact” for bidders and procures in government purchasing, creating a binding agreement among parties to conduct business in an ethical and legal manner. The organization also publishes a bribery index, rating countries on how likely bribes are paid to gain business. In 2002 Russia and China were rated most likely to pay bribes in developing countries, while Switzerland and Australia were least likely. According to The Economist, “Italy, America and Japan score poorly, despite their anti-bribery laws and conventions.”