BRIBERS INC.

by MONITOR
THE annual report on the state of global business bribery issued yesterday by Transparency International showed that six of the ten best-performing countries were European Union members. Non-EU Switzerland came out of the survey as the cleanest of the 30 biggest exporting states examined. Sweden was in second place with Austria 4th and Britain 6th, followed by Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium. Spain was rated 13th, France 15th, Portugal 16th and Italy, the worst of the EU countries, 20th. At the foot of the table were Taiwan, Turkey, China and India, in that order. The survey's conclusions are based on responses from more than 11'000 business people in 25 countries and ratings are calculated on a scale of 1 to 10. Even first-placed Switzerland received only a 7.8 score, prompting Transparency International to comment that “there are no real winners”. Although this annual survey performs a useful function it is sometimes criticised because it reflects country rather than company performance. Transparency International's reply is that bribery by a company implies a failure by its government to control corruption abroad. This view was reflected in the fall of Australia from first place last year to fourth; this was not a general decline in Australian business standards but an echo of the Iraq oil-for-food scandal as the Australian monopoly wheat exporter was found to have been involved in Saddam Hussein's large-scale scam to the tune of US$175 million.