2.2. Types of Bribery

The 2008 Bribe Payers Survey allows us to evaluate the informed views of foreign bribery by companies from the 22 countries even further, by exploring the frequency of different types of foreign bribery.

The three types of bribery assessed included:

• bribery of high-ranking politicians or political parties
• bribery of low-level public officials to ’speed things up’
• the use of personal or familiar relationships to win public contracts.

To evaluate these types of bribery, senior business executives were asked how often companies headquartered in each of the countries they knew about engaged in each form of bribery. Figure 1 (page 8) depicts the results (see the full set of results in Table A1 in Appendix three).

Overall, the results from this analysis agree with findings from the 2008 BPI. Companies from China, India, Mexico and Russia were reported by respondents to engage most often in the three practices. Similarly, the top 2008 BPI performers are seen to engage in them less frequently.

According to business executives with extensive knowledge of business practices in countries at the bottom of the index, companies headquartered there exhibit different bribery patterns when operating abroad. For example:

• About half of the respondents reported that companies from Russia often bribe high-level politicians and political parties and engage in bribery of low-level public officials, while somewhat fewer considered it common practice for Russian companies to use personal and familiar relationships to win public contracts.

• Companies from Mexico were reported by 38 percent of respondents to be likely to use personal and familiar relationships to win public contracts, but only by 32 percent to bribe high-level politicians, political parties or low-level public officials.

• 30 percent of respondents indicated that companies from India are likely to bribe low-level public officials to speed things up, which was a higher result than the other two types of foreign bribery assessed.

Even top 2008 BPI performers were reported to be weaker in some areas than others:

• 16 percent of respondents considered Belgian companies to ‘often’ or ‘almost always’ use familiar or personal relationships to win public contracts.
• Ten percent reported that use of familiar or personal relationships is often engaged in by Canadian companies when operating abroad.
• Seven percent of respondents reported that companies headquartered in the Netherlands often engage in bribery to low-level public officials to ’speed things up’ when operating abroad.
• When asked about the behaviour of Swiss companies, five percent of respondents reported that Swiss companies often engage in bribery to high-ranking politicians or to political parties or used personal and familiar relationships to obtain public contracts.