Corruption in Business

Corruption in Business

Introduction

Everybody has already heard about bribes in business. This form of corruption appeared in Ancient Greece when it was time to vote.

But far more than just bribes, corruption is one of the biggest problems in business nowadays. Indeed, this scourge can affect politics, administrations, institutions and the business world. But, this concept can be discussed: How, in practice can we say what it is substantially corrupt, and how can we measure this corruption? In fact, this concept is not very precise and can be a very subjective notion.

How does the world perceive the corruption?

That’s why in the following report, we will discuss the concept of corruption and establish its definition according to the legal institutions. Moreover, we will see the different forms of corruption and the way of limiting it in the global business.

We can assume that if corruption still occurs, that some favorable conditions for corruption must exist. What we can do is analyze concrete cases of corruption in business, in order to understand the issues of corruption and its impact on the economic environment. That’s why we will try to explain how to “measure” the corruption, and the measures that have been taken in the world to control corruption and to limit it.

So, in the first part we will define what corruption is concretely, and then we will introduce different ways of measuring it and how policies try to limit corruption. In the last part we will extend the debate to lobbying which can be, in certain cases, considered as corruption because of some illegal ethics.

I. What is the corruption?

I.1. Definition

Bribery or corruption is the act of giving money or gift in exchange of a “service”. The definition in the dictionary for corrupt is: “willing to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain”. (www.wordreference.com).

Corruption is the use of a power with the aim of self enrichment. It can be used in several fields of activity. For example, by an official, an elected representative, a doctor, a referee, an employee, etc. by abusing their position of authority, by not doing, doing, helping with his power in exchange of a gift, money, promise…

Corruption in business is something else. In most cases it borne from a need to win a contract. For example big contracts for weapons, nuclear power station, etc.

For some very important contracts, the companies sometimes need to give bribes to the state in which they want to win the contract. To hide the illegal transactions in the bookkeeping, companies cheat: They claim that they buy