Aug 05 2008
how to anonymously report bribe demands
I wanted to do a quick plug (and yes, I know that China Law Blog did one last month) for TRACE International’s BRIBEline. Both because I was asked by the folks at TRACE International and because I find the idea of an online watchdog site to be very intriguing.
Here is how TRACE is plugging their services:
TRACE launched a website that allows anonymous and secure reporting of bribe demands. BRIBEline, available at www.bribeline.org, is a secure, multi-lingual website through which companies and individuals can anonymously report the bribe demands they receive. Making a report on BRIBEline is quick and easy. The online survey is available in Chinese and 20 other languages. Completing the survey involves answering no more than ten multiple-choice questions. No names are requested or collected, the individual is not asked if the bribe was paid, and reports made to BRIBEline are not used for investigations or prosecutions.
So what’s the point of such a service?
we hope to get a grip on what groups are demanding bribes, where they are demanding them, and under what circumstances. Astonishingly, there is no other source collecting this data, and the World Bank (which has endorsed BRIBELine and has a link to the site on their web site) stresses the importance of such data.
Sounds like a cool concept to me. Especially since I had a string of posts covering some topics on the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) which makes bribery to a foreign government official illegal. Remember: people who work at Chinese SOE’s may very well count as government officials, and so bribes to them are illegal.
Because I am for straight and honest business, I think what TRACE is doing also serves as a deterrence for Chinese businesses to engage in taking bribes. Sure, it won’t end the practice, but at this point, anything helps. Really.
I’m not sure I agree that clean and straight is best for business, but that’s the law as it stands and we must abide by it in the US and the EU. Frankly, I don’t believe it should be law. It is an extra hurdle we must jump without the benefit of the bribe, but the bribe must be made by someone. The payoff s usually pushed, unsaid, onto the local distributor, who, by now, should know better than raise the issue with American or EU sales managers.
A Fortune 500 Vice-President I knew xeroxed and distributed to his team any and all FCPA-related articles he got his hands on. He would write sanctimoniously at the top, “Careful, team! Let us not fall into this trap! Stand up straight and honorably!” etc.
He was known as a cost cutter, not a business developer. His fear was the fines and more likely the personal liability. Finance guys such as he hold every marketing penny hostage unless they see an immediate direct benefit that can be derived from its expense. This gent knew a bribe would grease the wheels and hoped you did it, but having covered his backside with reams of leaflets, he was, he believed, covered.
Of course, were you to come back from Corrupt Country #19 without a deal in your pocket, you were in for it and blamed for what was, essentially, his lack of leadership.
Richard,
I definitely understand the reality of bribes and that’s how business is done in much of the world outside of the US and EU. (I personally place a high value on legal compliance, but then again, I am a lawyer by trade.) As a lawyer, the least I can do for any client is similar to the Fortune 500 VP: sound the alarm and hope that it gets heard. Either way though, I cannot ultimately force any client to comply with the FCPA or any such anti-bribery law. That is always a client’s choice… for better or worse.
Tom