Introduction
Why is it Important to Talk about Bribery?
Bribery is a wasteful, unethical activity that weakens governments and economies.
What is bribery?
Something valuable (such as money) that is given in order to get someone to do something1.
Within business, bribery can take on various forms and appearances. The majority of bribes, 57%, are used to secure public procurement contracts.2One of the key issues inherently raised by bribery is that it distorts and taints the standard competitive practice of bidding for government contracts. The goal of government contract procurement is to source the needed items at the best quality possible at the lowest price point possible. Not only is it unethical for a company to influence the decision …show more content…
This leads to an increase in prices which will cause a decrease in demand that will ultimately negate the benefit achieved initially via the bride. Another factor involved with in the situation is if a 5% bribe is initially being demanded, this could become an ongoing activity down the road where the demand could be increased to something like 10%. Once a company begins going down this path their profits could continue to decrease as the percentage they are required to pay increases.
Not only does this have negative outcomes for the company involved with in the bribery it also has a negative outcomes for consumers and for the government. Consumers will be put at a disadvantage because These additional cost will be passed on to them and because other products that may ordinarily have competed with the product being offered by the company doing the bribery may not be allowed to compete by the government official involved. This reduces the benefits of healthy competition to consumers and can cause a lower standard of …show more content…
The country where bribery is rampant does not have a level playing field, as bribery adds unknown factors. Also a company that is seeking to invest in a new country, if all other factors are equal except for the fact that one country has rampant bribery and the other does not. Then the obvious choice would be the country that does not have rampant bribery as there are other costs associated with bribery. For example, when negotiating with governmental officials the need to negotiate bribes in addition to standard negotiations adds even more time and cost to the issue. When a country develops a reputation for bribery, foreign investment also decreases in frequency and amount4. It seems that because of the growing negative public attitude towards bribery many companies do not wish to even risk being associated with such matters.
Although bribery seemingly has universal negative effects within developing countries these effects are even worse both in extent and significance. Officials in developing countries often have access to proportionately significant funds, funds intended for the use of developing resources and nation building. Bribery in developing countries often induces these officials to squander these critical funds for less than ideal applications or even useless
Why is it Important to Talk about Bribery?
Bribery is a wasteful, unethical activity that weakens governments and economies.
What is bribery?
Something valuable (such as money) that is given in order to get someone to do something1.
Within business, bribery can take on various forms and appearances. The majority of bribes, 57%, are used to secure public procurement contracts.2One of the key issues inherently raised by bribery is that it distorts and taints the standard competitive practice of bidding for government contracts. The goal of government contract procurement is to source the needed items at the best quality possible at the lowest price point possible. Not only is it unethical for a company to influence the decision …show more content…
This leads to an increase in prices which will cause a decrease in demand that will ultimately negate the benefit achieved initially via the bride. Another factor involved with in the situation is if a 5% bribe is initially being demanded, this could become an ongoing activity down the road where the demand could be increased to something like 10%. Once a company begins going down this path their profits could continue to decrease as the percentage they are required to pay increases.
Not only does this have negative outcomes for the company involved with in the bribery it also has a negative outcomes for consumers and for the government. Consumers will be put at a disadvantage because These additional cost will be passed on to them and because other products that may ordinarily have competed with the product being offered by the company doing the bribery may not be allowed to compete by the government official involved. This reduces the benefits of healthy competition to consumers and can cause a lower standard of …show more content…
The country where bribery is rampant does not have a level playing field, as bribery adds unknown factors. Also a company that is seeking to invest in a new country, if all other factors are equal except for the fact that one country has rampant bribery and the other does not. Then the obvious choice would be the country that does not have rampant bribery as there are other costs associated with bribery. For example, when negotiating with governmental officials the need to negotiate bribes in addition to standard negotiations adds even more time and cost to the issue. When a country develops a reputation for bribery, foreign investment also decreases in frequency and amount4. It seems that because of the growing negative public attitude towards bribery many companies do not wish to even risk being associated with such matters.
Although bribery seemingly has universal negative effects within developing countries these effects are even worse both in extent and significance. Officials in developing countries often have access to proportionately significant funds, funds intended for the use of developing resources and nation building. Bribery in developing countries often induces these officials to squander these critical funds for less than ideal applications or even useless