Oumm3203 Professional Ethics

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

MAY / 2013

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

OUMM3203

MATRICULATION NO : 781130125368001

IDENTITY CARD NO. : 781130-12-5368

TELEPHONE NO. : 0198533933

NAME : Poon Pick Yun

E-MAIL : [email protected]

E TUTOR’S NAME : PN HAMIDAH RAMLAN

LEARNING CENTRE : OUM Sandakan

Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................1

The causes of the act of Bribery......................................................................................................3

Economic Analysis on the Act of Bribery.......................................................................................5

Legal Analysis on the act of bribery..............................................................................................11

Ethical analysis on the act of bribery.............................................................................................12

Bribery from Religious Point of View...........................................................................................16

Curbing Bribery.............................................................................................................................18

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19

References......................................................................................................................................21

OUMM3303781130125368001POON PICK YUN

IntroductionWhat is bribery? Bribe as in a verb means to dishonestly persuade someone to act in one’s

favour by a gift of money or other inducement. Bribe as in noun is a sum of money or other

inducement offered or given to someone.

In other words bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipient's conduct. It may be in the

form money, goods, right in action, property, preferment, privilege, emolument, objects of value,

advantage, or merely a promise or undertaking to induce or influence the action, vote or

influence of a person in an official or public capacity. In economics, bribe has been described as

rent. Bribery in bureaucracy has been viewed as a reason for the higher cost of production of

goods and services. It is an act of giving money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the

recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering,

giving, receiving or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other

person in charge of a public or legal duty.

Bribery had been practiced for centuries. In ancient China, for instance bribing was as common

as preparing food on the table. The spread of bribery in traditional China is normally connected

to the Confucian concept of ‘ renzhi ‘, all relations were based solely on mutual trust and

propriety and this kind of moral uprightness could be developed only among a minority. The

attempt of reducing bribery by trying to institutionalize the monetary of the state,was met with

sharp criticism by the Confucian elite so bribery continued to be widespread both in the court

and among the local elites, which was one of the targets for criticism in the novel Jin Ping Mei.

Another kind of bribery came about in Tang China, developed in connection with the imperial

examination system which was everyone’s dream to pass.

Bribery is a crime or offense law where a person's liberty, contract or privileges or favours from

the authorities or companies after giving money, gifts or entertainment for the party. According

to the World Bank the causes of bribes are complex. The World Bank recognizes that bribery is a

symptom of other deeper-seated factors, such as poorly designed economic policies, low levels

of education, under-developed civil society, and the weak accountability of public institutions

(World Bank, 1997a, b, p.). This is suggestive of conditions in the developing countries, and thus

they have serious implications of bribery. The results of bribery that exceed the derived

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individual profits, undermined by ulterior motives decisions may threaten the well-being of the

whole community as acts of corruption affect the well-being of society as a whole and not just

the individual(s) committing the acts. An example is the Ghanaian water supply crisis in 1979.

As the government neglected to monitor the service, and funds were misused, public utility

corporations did not have the necessary equipment to provide water, and the country was close to

national epidemic (Alatas, 1990, p. 126). A more recent example is Pakistan. The cost of

corruption in the period 1993-1996 reached US$15 billion, equal to 25 percent of the country’s

GDP. Systematic leakage of tax revenues cost another 3-4 percent of the GDP. A total of US$50

billion were siphoned out of the country illegally, resulting annually in an acute balance of

payments gap of US$7 billion on an annual basis (Sethi, 2000). These examples show the

seriousness of the problem and the need to tackle it.

There are four major bribery offense stated in the, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Law namely:

1. Asking or Accepting Bribery

2. Offer or Give bribes

3. Making False Claims

4. Misuse of Position or Power

2


The causes of the act of Bribery

There are many causes that made men and women commit bribery such as:

a) Personal weakness as lack of faith and piousness.

Everyone knows that bribery is prohibited by religion as well as the law, but would still do so

with a thousand and one personal reasons. It is included in the theory "of Neutralization

Technique" by Grisham Sykes and David Matza, stating that, "Do a bribe in secret as long as no

one knows". For those with weak personality, wanting to live lavishly beyond one’s means, to

show- off, being greedy, to get rich quick, the driving force for accepting a bribe will intensify,

justifying their actions even when they know that it is wrong.

b) Weakness of leadership and management in an organization.

Poor leadership in an institution usually resulted in less supervision, no monitoring, tacky in

work performance opening doors to abuse in work performance. Hence, bribery is committed.

c) Social and cultural.

Plural society such as Malaysia has a long tradition of gift giving in the form of money and

possessions, in conjunction with the days of greatness, festivals, birthday parties, weddings and

the list goes on. These auspicious days create opportunities to ‘open and accepted bribery’ and

bribed recipients are asked to do the same bribed or lured unnoticed.

d) Modernisation.

When economic and social developments are not balanced with spiritual development it will lead

to bribery. Development projects sprouting like mushrooms will also increase the flow of money

thus groups involved also take the opportunity to make a buck or two.

In this modern era, we saw racing contractors tendering, trying and competing to win the hearts

of management officials or decision makers. Bribery is given as shortcuts to get tenders, to

expedite payment, release or action of punishment for failure or delay in completion of the

projects.

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e) Political.

Some politicians used the opportunity to give back to the community by accepting and giving

bribes to get power, won the elections for political office, accumulating wealth, and the

addiction of popularity.

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Economic Analysis on the Act of BriberyBribery around the world is estimated at about $1 trillion (RM3.16 trillion).

The World Bank calls bribery, ‘‘the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development.

It undermines development by distorting the rule of law and weakening the institutional

foundation on which economic growth depends’’. Corruption is a serious social problem that

affects all facets of a society. Corruption has been shown to be associated with a wide variety of

social and economic problems, including lower economic growth, foreign direct investment,

infant mortality rate, and military spending. A number of international organizations also put

great emphasis on fighting against bribery. Employees, managers, or salespeople of a business

may offer money or gifts to a potential client in exchange for business. For example, in 2006,

German prosecutors conducted a wide-ranging investigation of Siemens AG to determine if

Siemens employees paid bribes in exchange for business.

In some cases where the system of law is not well-implemented, bribes may be a way for

companies to continue their businesses. In the case, for example, custom officials may harass a

certain firm or production plant, officially stating they are checking for irregularities, halting

production or stalling other normal activities of a firm. The disruption may cause losses to the

firm that exceeds the amount of money to pay off the official. Bribing the officials is a common

way to deal with this issue in countries where there exists no firm system of reporting these

semi-illegal activities. A third party, known as a White Glove, may be involved to act as a clean

middleman. Specialist consultancies have been set up to help multinational companies and SMEs

with a commitment to trade more ethically and benefit from compliance with the law making

sure that contracts based on or involving the payment or transfer of bribes such as "secret

commissions" or “kickbacks" are void.

The World Bank recognizes that corruption is a symptom of other, deeper-seated factors, such as

poorly designed economic policies, low levels of education, underdeveloped civil society, and

the weak accountability of public institutions (World Bank, 1997a, b, p. 5). This is suggestive of

conditions in the developing countries, and thus they have serious implications for corruption.

The results of corruption that exceed the derived individual profits, undermined by ulterior

motives decisions may threaten the well-being of the whole community as acts of corruption

affect the well-being of society as a whole and not just the individuals committing the acts. An

5


example is the Ghanaian water supply crisis in 1979. As the government neglected to monitor the

service, and funds were misused, public utility corporations did not have the necessary

equipment to provide water, and the country was close to national epidemic as in Alatas, 1990

and a more recent example is Pakistan. The cost of corruption in the period 1993-1996 reached

US$15 billion (RM46.4 billion), equal to 25 percent of the country’s GDP. Systematic leakage of

tax revenues cost another 3-4 percent of the GDP. A total of US$50 billion(RM158 billion) were

siphoned out of the country illegally, resulting annually in an acute balance of payments gap of

US$7 billion (RM21.7 billion) on an annual basis. These examples show the seriousness of the

problem and the need to tackle it for bribery is affecting the financial markets.

Recently, there has been a call for greater control of corruption and associated economic crime

within many international organizations, such as the UN, the World Bank, the International

Monetary Fund; and also regional ones such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development (OECD), the Council of Europe, the European Community, and the Center for

International Private Enterprise. TI is a non-governmental organization created to combat

corruption in governments and business and the policies of four such organizations: the UN, the

World Bank, EU, and the OECD are analyzed. Some estimates calculate that as much as $30

billion in aid for Africa has ended up in foreign bank accounts. This amount is twice the annual

gross domestic product (GDP) of Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda combined. Over the last 20 years,

Philippines is estimated to have lost $48 billion (RM148.8 billion) due to corruption, surpassing

its entire foreign debt of $40.6 billion (RM 125.86 billion). There is no denying that corruption

is affecting financial markets. Recently, there are several studies that examine how one country’s

level of corruption might affect asset prices in other countries and how corruption may affect the

bond and stock markets.

The role of the government is much debated in economics; however, two important functions

have emerged clearly. Perhaps due to its ``comparative advantage in violence'', the primary

function of the government is to provide the underlying rules of the game (North, 1981). This

involves the implementation of well-defined property rights that foster competition and

collaboration in the pursuit of economic rent. Effective judicial, defense and regulatory systems

must be maintained by the government for the enforcement of these rights since it has economies

of scale in providing these services. This lowers transaction costs and will therefore encourage

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economic growth through the evolvement of institutions that exploit the resulting opportunities

by engaging in economic exchange and transformation of resources. By failing to perform this

function efficiently, the government will increase the costs of transaction and lower economic

growth. The second crucial function of the government is to provide certain basic public goods

and services that may be underprovided by the private sector.

According to Hall, there are two problems associated with bribery for the public authorities and

the public to deal with. Firstly, bribery makes the service more costly. Secondly, it perverts

democratic processes and rational decision-making. A serious issue in terms of bribery is the

corruption from multinational corporations in host developing countries. For example, German

companies were paying more than US$3 billion (RM9.3billion) per year in bribes to win

contracts abroad. Independent audits of the World Bank found forty contracts in which US$40

million (RM124 million) had been misprocured. This caused much criticism and discontent from

NGOs involved. The NGO Christian Aid put it bluntly the Western countries “should focus on

cleaning their own houses before making the problems in poor country.” Ensuring that Western

companies are not involved in bribery, money laundering or tax evasion through offshore

accounts is ranked as first target. P. Vogl from TI once said that “There is no question that

reforms in many countries will be strengthened if there were more visible evidence that leading

international organizations and Western governments were even-handed in their anti-corruption

campaign, attacking the bribe givers with just as much as force and fury as they now use to

attack the bribe takers”

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Impact of the act of bribery on financial markets

Discussion on bribery is important because it will cripple an organization. With the advent of

bribery, no one will be able to predict the actions of a person or as a result of a plan for the

future. The progress of a country depends on the intellectual and professional guest and bribery

that leads to corruption will only erode public confidence in our country's intellectuals. Besides,

every time a bribe is carried out the law weakens; the government loses its revenue through the

slipping of the proper actions. For instance, if negligence has been determined, then the bribes

were supposed to replace the tax money collected and benefits enjoyed by only a handful.

Studies of the impact of bribery upon government procurement policies in several Asian

countries reveal that these governments have paid from 20 to 100 per cent more for goods and

services than they would have to otherwise. In theory, bureaucratic bribery may not necessarily

be bad for business pointed out that corrupted behaviour by itself will not impose a net social

cost since it involves transfer payments from bribed payers to bureaucrats. Moreover, bribes can

ease the burden cost of government by directing scarce resources toward higher bidders.

However, this early stream of theoretical work of efficiency-enhancing view of bribery has found

little empirical support and has largely fallen out of favour. Bribery creates the wrong set of

incentives in the society. However, since bribery is very secretive, it is difficult to provide

accurate estimates on the costs to the government in a particular country. The pervasive nature of

bribery makes it even harder because it is associated with a variety of other social and economic

ills – including anemic economic growth, reduced foreign investment, reduced shareholder

protection, and lower healthcare and education spending – its direct impact on resource

allocation in society, and various measures of economic well-being, can be difficult to isolate.

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Borrowing costs

In a survey by Ciocchini in 2003 showed that bribery increased borrowing costs for government

and firms in emerging markets determining the price of emerging market bonds sold on the

global bond market. Ciocchini used the launch spreads of these bonds, which refer to the

difference between the initial yield of these bonds and the rate commanded by a risk-free bond of

the same maturity. The spread of these bonds reflects the higher default probability associated

with emerging market debt. They are in effect studying the relationship between bribery and

the perceived likelihood that a firm or government will default on its debt and the average

corporate and sovereign bond spreads in these countries for average bond spreads increase with

bribery in that country. This preliminary result shows that bribery increases when a country’s

borrowing cost increases. To investigate this relationship further, Ciocchini et al. (2003) did two

things. First, they control other variables that affect bond spreads in a multivariate setup. Second,

they take into the account the fact that the decision to launch a bond is endogenous. Countries

and firms that choose to issue debt will differ systematically from those that do not. Therefore,

they control for the likelihood of new issues by different classes of borrowers. The empirical

strategy consists of estimating the impact of bribery on spreads, first by ordinary least squares

(OLS) and then by means of the Heckman procedure, which controls for the possible sample

selection problem.

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Stock prices

Bribery can affect equity value drivers like a firm’s long-term growth. Fisman (1991) examines

the value of political connection in Indonesia by examining the stock prices of companies that

have different degrees of political connections. He relates the news on the health of the former

Indonesian President Suharto to the stock returns of these companies. He shows that bad news on

Suharto’s health lead to reliably lower stock returns of the companies with extensive political

connections than the independent companies. In addition to the evidence in Indonesia, there is

also evidence that corruption affects stock prices in other countries proving firms from more

corrupt countries trade at significantly lower market multiples, after controlling for other factors

significantly decreases equity values after controlling for many other firm- and country-level

control factors.

One possible reason why bribery may affect stock valuation has to do with corporate supremacy.

As bribery increases, regulatory oversight is weakened and corporate supremacy may become

worse. This leads to higher default risk for bonds and lower valuation for stocks. To investigate

this hypothesis, Ng and Qian (2004) examine the impact of bribery on corporate supremacy.

They build a model demonstrating that an insider has more incentives to expropriate an outsider

if bribery reduces the probability that the insider will get caught. As a result, corporate

governance will be worse in more corrupted countries. They use firm-level corporate supremacy

from two different surveys (i.e. those of Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia and Standard and Poor)

and examine how country-level corruption data would affect corporate governance in different

firms. The empirical analysis suggests that bribery has a significant impact on both corporate

governance and a firm’s valuation. The quality of corporate governance in more corrupt

countries tends to be worse, and firms are accordingly traded at lower valuation multiples.

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Legal Analysis on the act of bribery

According to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 1997 law giving bribes or receiving bribes is

considered to be a really serious offence. If a person were to be found guilty under this act he or

she will be imprisoned up to a maximum of 20 years and fine of five times the value of the

gratification that they received. As that being said, still they are a lot of Malaysians who still

practices bribing. For example when a traffic police tries to enforce a law, we who commit the

offence will always try to offer “duit kopi” to the officer for him to let us off with just a warning.

One might think giving the police money might only cost him or her RM30 but if paying the fine

it will cost him RM300. On the other hand, when the officer is offered to take the bribe he or she

can always turn down the bribe. As the old saying says it takes two to tango. Giving bribes is an

offence and a law without enforcers is like a book without a reader.

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Ethical analysis on the act of bribery

Professionalism and ethics

There should be measures to ensure the integrity of procurement officers in which can be

strengthened by codes of conduct and penal provisions that are specifically tailored specifically

to procurement officers. This is to make sure that corruption practices that typically occur in the

procurement process can be curbed. A system is usually implemented to plan punishment for

misbehavior without realizing the fact that rewards for good behavior can also motivate

individuals. Thus the development of codes of conduct for staff is also extremely important. Also

important is the creation, dissemination, implementation, and enforcement of codes of conduct

for procurement officers. In the effort of raising awareness of ethics, the National Institute of

Public Administration provides training that includes integrity issues to procurement officers.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) former chairman advises all procurement officers to

complete their work on time. He suggests that the government agencies not only have a code of

ethics, but also actually practice them such as that which has been practiced by Malaysian

Institute of Accountants. The code of ethics should be extended to council members and

Members of Parliaments to prevent them in bringing their interest and interfering with the

procedures.

One local authority in Perak frequently arranged for assemblies for the chief to remind their staff

on integrity and accountability in performing their job. Posters, brochures and newspaper

cuttings on bribery are frequently distributed to remind and warn relevant officers on the

consequences. Meetings are also conducted to discuss any loopholes in the procedures resulting

in leaking of insider information. In the case of absent rules or existing rules that can be easily

manipulated, they should be amended or abolished. The staff are also advised to change their

working attitude and culture. They are not permitted to take leave early in the month except for

emergency cases. As a result a payment that normally would take 30 days to settle can now be

processed in three days’ time.

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Ethics varies form one person to another due to personal implications and backgrounds such as

family influence, peer influence, life experience, personal values and morals as well as

situational factors.

There are four codes of ethics which are often connected to professionalism such as:

1. Utilitarianism

A Greek word meaning the outcome or result, in other words the outcome of our actions taking

into considerations ‘The greatest good for the greatest number”. For instance if a company is in

the brink of bankruptcy as a CEO of a company we need to think of the employees the company

has, how would they cope if they are jobless. These factors will lead the CEO to commit the act

of bribery in order to save his staff and his company.

Utilitarianism says that no matter in what condition, the ‘correct’ action or policy is which give

more benefits or less cost (if all alternatives only expense on cost, nothing benefit).

Utilitarianism supports the action or policy choosing which give maximize benefits or keep cost

down.

In utilitarianism perspective, bribery is a right thing because with do this way, we can obtain

more benefit for us than do the normal way. But the problem here is other perception. What we

think is good for us, not always good or fine for others. In utilitarianism, all things can be

measured. It means that all thing can be in the trade. In utilitarianism, bribery is right in moral

but in fact, it is not fair and collide others’ rights. Not all in this world can be purchased by

money. We know that bribery is not a good habit. We have to adjust ourselves to get the right

thing with the right way.

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2. Universalism

Universalism is also another Greek term that refers to duties or obligations which is based on the

intentions of the person making the decision or performing the act. Unlike the Utilitarianism,

Universalism is different for example if we as parents, want our children to be good in their

studies, sometimes we might say “if you can get 7A in your SPM, I will buy you a smart phone.”

Even though, it is morally wrong but good intentions will usually produce beneficial outcomes.

On the one hand, there will always be exceptions to any universal rules. People from particulars

cultures feel that their actions are morally right and ethically justifiable while the universalist

actions would be considered morally wrong. People from universalist cultures would find

particulars behavior as corrupt. There are many reasons for corrupt behavior, especially in

developing countries, such as poverty, bureaucracy and low salaries. However, it is also true that

no nation is free of corruption. It just happens to be less visible in the more developed world.

Human nature is human nature and it is wrong for people to feel that one culture is morally

superior to another. However, the fact remains that big sums of money are paid in bribes each

year. This is bad news for the countries in question because as the same article points out, this

reduced corruption leads to increased income and in the long term increased hope.

3. Distributive justice

Distributive justice is based on two elements that are collaboration and conflicts. In the economic

system we use today it adapts equality, needs, effort, contribution and competence as its

principles. A person in an organization will be judged accordingly and benefits would be shared

equally especially to the most disadvantage members in that organization. The perception that

each party exchanges resources and receives rewards as promised represents distributive justice.

Local officials will reciprocate a bribe payment with the expected services have a positive

relationship with bribery behaviors. It addresses bribery from a motivational perspective. Firms

engage in bribery activities through their agents because they have a strong motivation to do so.

This is to bring a new perspective to the bribery literature.

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4. Personal liberty

Personal liberty is based upon a single principle that is liberty. In this theory gifts, contributions,

and services can be allowed just as long as they are voluntary, and it would not change any

outcomes that will be biased to a certain organization. In a free society or free market, the briber

is acting legitimately. It is the bribe who is defrauding someone and therefore deserves

prosecution. Here a distinction must be made between “aggressive” and “defensive” bribery. The

first should be considered aggressive and improper, whereas the latter should be considered

legitimate and proper. Consider a typical “aggressive bribe”. Example is a Mafia leader bribes

police official to exclude other, competing operators of gambling casinos from a certain

territorial area. Mafioso acts in collaboration with the government to coerce competing gambling

proprietors, in this case, an initiator, and accessory, to governmental aggression against his

competitors. A “defensive bribe” has a radically different kinds of moral status. In such a case,

for example, Robinson is seeing that gambling casinos are outlawed in a certain area, bribes

policemen to allow his casino to operate a perfectly legitimate response to an unfortunate

situation. Defensive bribery performs an important social function throughout the world. In many

countries, business could not be transacted at all without the lubricant of bribery. In this way

crippling and destructive regulations and exactions can be avoided. A “corrupt government,”

then, is not necessarily a bad thing compared to an “incorruptible government” whose officials

enforce the laws with great severity. Bribery can at least allow a partial flowering of voluntary

transactions and actions in a society.

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Bribery from Religious Point of ViewIslamic View on Bribery

The Culture of bribery was actually realized by the Islamic past and the best way to overcome

and control this culture was good foundation in religious teachings. The first decisive step was

raised by Muslims that to effectively ban without compromising with bribery, such as what

Prophet Muhammad narrated in Tirmidhi, which means: "The recipient and giver will be placed

in the Fire".

This act also vigorously condemned by God as stated in another hadith narrated by Ahmad,

which means: "Allah has cursed those who give bribes as well as the recipient of a way to both".

Based on the above evidences it clearly shows that Islam too forbids this despicable act.

Condemnation is not only limited to the receiver but also the giver and those who abet and

facilitate in this act .

Christian View on Bribery

Exodus 23:8: And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the

cause of those who are in the right.

Proverbs 15:27: Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who

hates bribes will live.

Gregory Nichols sat sipping coffee, listening to a missionary, recently arrived in Ukraine, telling

a common story. After he rented an auditorium, the director of the building began dropping hints

that the agreement might have to be canceled. They both knew that a gift to the director would

solve the problem. The new missionary felt he could not do that. He could not compromise his

biblical integrity. It would be more "Christian" to spend his valuable time finding another facility

than offering a gift to the director.

The Biblical Argument

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word shochad usually is translated as bribe, but sometimes as

gift or ransom (Proverbs 6:25) or present (II Kings 16:8). Minhah normally is translated as gift,

but sometimes as bribe. Both shochad and minhah are used to show the submission of an inferior

16


to a superior. The idea of bribe or gift in this sense does not appear in the New Testament. In an

examination of Old Testament passages which mention gift, present, or bribe emerge. The Bible

always condemns taking a bribe. Those in authority who are deciding people's futures are to be

the embodiment of impartial justice. This is a difficult concept for Westerners to understand.

They also can be a culturally based incentive for officials to do their prescribed jobs. Many

would call it a tip. We must bear in mind that the Bible is for all cultures, for all times, and for all

social classes. Scripture is clear that God's people, who are in positions of power and leadership,

must uphold blind, impartial justice but not all of God's people have godly rulers.

However, the biggest impact of bribery is disarraying the administration of a country. As a result,

it creates more problems such as economic decline and the interests of society will be neglected.

The Culture of corruption can destroy the administration and governance of a country as

recorded history of the fall of President Marcos of the Philippines when the helm of the

government was corrupted which became unbearable.

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Curbing Bribery

Bribery if not curb will lead to many social problems as the laws made are not fully complied

with. These activities of crime and injustice will flourish and as times go by will get more and

more difficult to counter till one day it will be completely out of control.

Among the Anti-Corruption Measures are as follows:

1. Strengthen Faith and Identity

Faith and personal lives are the most powerful fortress to combat bribery. Faith, strength and

resilience can ward off bribery reward even though the chance is in front of the eyes.

2. Education

Bribery should be taught schools days. Children should be taught that bribery is wrong even

from a young age so that they will grow to be a more responsible, trustworthy and honest

individual.

3. Improve Law Enforcement and Penalties

Law enforcement should be stepped- up so that people will realize the seriousness of the problem

of bribery. If the penalty for bribery is heavy, people will think twice before attempting to

commit bribery.

4. Facilitate Business Using ICT

Processing procedure is long, difficult and slow which usually leads to bribery so it should be

simplified by using ICT. Forms should be filled and sent online so as not to burden the traders,

contractors and investors. A simple and transparent process can avoid bribery simply to speed

up the process.

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Conclusion

Bribery is a serious problem for economies in transition. It causes retardation in the development

of institutions conducive to economic growth. It is a serious obstacle in the development process

of developing countries. High levels of bribery endanger the well-being of whole nations.

According to the data, the level of bribery in developing countries and those in transition is

higher than in developed ones. Despite certain ideas that bribery can contribute to development

and the old-fashioned argument that developing countries cannot oppose bribery per se, as being

underdeveloped and lacking mature levels of democracy, it seems reasonable to agree that

bribery breeds underdevelopment rather than the other way round. It is important to remember

that bribery is a transnational crime, an example of involvements of public servants, businesses

and politicians to use other countries to hold or launder their slush funds or pay-off. Thus, it is

only natural to approach it at the international level. However, initially positive ideas of

enhancing control and prosecution of economic crime seem not to be working, just as in the

saying “If the path to hell is paved with good intentions.” The criminal law-enforcement

approach chosen by the main international organizations – UN, World Bank, EU is not effective.

Until this approach changes and priority is given to the principle of prevention rather than

punishment, the costs of controlling economic crimes in the developing countries are

unnecessarily high and not worthwhile.

Transparent and credible administration is very important to bring a country out of this

despicable act of bribery as there is no end in the economic crisis around the world. Therefore,

everyone regardless of different political or religious ideas should look forward and join hands

with the government in achieving this Mission. Indeed, the effort is the beginning of a new era in

the history of the fight against bribery, abuse of power and various forms of abuse. Hopefully

one day, the country is known and recognized as the cleanest country in the world.

To conclude, it is evident that it is almost impossible to eliminate bribery. Unless the interests of

developing countries are taken into account, most international measures to fight corruption

remain costly and ineffective.

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In a way, bribery is like cancer. This is quite a popular association used in the literature (Alatas,

1990; Klitgaard, 1988). It has a clustering characteristic, one crime leads to another clustering

around it. Another feature is that law enforcement corruption, like a malignant tumor, does not

disappear but even increases. It seems to be a pessimistic conclusion that nothing can be done

about corruption, however, this should not lead to idleness: Like illness, bribery will always be

with us. But as this sad fact does not keep us from attempting to reduce disease, neither should it

paralyze efforts to reduce bribery. However, it is a question of balancing the interests of the

actors in the international arena, a question of global politics, and promoting equality between

nations. Hinterseer, in relation to the politics of money laundering, that could be applied

generally to bribery as well, stated that: Unless the interests of developing countries are taken

into account, most international measures to fight corruption remain costly and ineffective.

20


ReferencesBribery, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bribery, (retrieved on 20thJune 2013).

Corruption, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/corruption, (retrieved on 20thJune 2013).

Corruption Is More Than Bribery, http://www.apnacafrica.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61%3acorruption-is-more-than-bribery&catid=40%3astrategic-briefs&lang=en(retrieved on 20thJune 2013).

Costs And Consequences Of Bribery And Corruption, http://www.ethicsmonitor.co.za/costs-and-consequences-of-bribery-and-corruption.aspx, (retrieved on 20thJune 2013).

The Impact Of Bribery On Firm Performance: Evidence From Central And Eastern European Countries, http://www.coll.mpg.de/sites/www.coll.mpg.de/files/workshop/kochanova.pdf, (retrieved on 20thJune 2013).

The Moral Critique Coruption In Developing Countries, http://www.princeton.edu/jpia/past-issues-1/2000/8.pdf, (retrieved on 20thJune 2013).

To Bribe Or Not To Bribe: What Are The Effects Of Bribery In The Success Of International Business Transactions? , http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/gateway/files.php?file=cepmlp_car13_40_862138685.pdf, (retrieved on 20thJune 2013).

21

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/gateway/files.php?file=cepmlp_car13_40_862138685.pdf

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/gateway/files.php?file=cepmlp_car13_40_862138685.pdf

http://www.princeton.edu/jpia/past-issues-1/2000/8.pdf

http://www.princeton.edu/jpia/past-issues-1/2000/8.pdf

http://www.coll.mpg.de/sites/www.coll.mpg.de/files/workshop/kochanova.pdf

http://www.ethicsmonitor.co.za/Costs-and-consequences-of-bribery-and-corruption.aspx

http://www.ethicsmonitor.co.za/Costs-and-consequences-of-bribery-and-corruption.aspx

http://www.apnacafrica.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=61%3Acorruption-is-more-than-bribery&catid=40%3Astrategic-briefs&lang=en



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bribery

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