Corruption in business

Résumé du document

Everybody has already heard about bribing system 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.

Extraits

[...] The aim was to put a ban on the corruption that was growing. It's under the leadership of some big institutions like the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OEC that these first advances were made. For example, in 1996, through the Council of Europe, a committee of Ministers adopted a program of Actions against Corruption. This program scheduled some measures to take and introduce some anti-corruption tools: the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption the Civil Law Convention on Corruption the Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption the Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption the Recommendation on Codes of Conduct for Public Officials the Recommendation on Common Rules against Corruption in the Funding of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns This first important initiative aimed at identifying the different types of corruption of every sector (public sector, private sector, politics, financing activities drawing the attention to this problem that pollutes the world economy. [...]

[...] Secondly, because France led a war in this country only one year ago. So we must ask ourselves why N.Sarkozy led a war there; maybe it's because he wanted to protect his own interests. Again this information must be taken very carefully. N.Sarkozy attended a trial against the newspaper for lying. To conclude we can say that corruption is a concept that is very difficult to analyze. Indeed, corruption is not always an illegal thing. II. How to measure and to control the corruption? [...]

[...] They hire an ethical observant to fight against corruption. Theo Waigel, this ethical observant, was a finance minister in Germany between 1989 and 1998. The shocking part is that Siemens would have lost the right to sell in United States if they didn't pay the US court. The new CEO wants to claim damages for the old leadership team. If we consider that a policeman is corrupted when he receives money instead of giving a fine, we can consider that the US court is also corrupted because it received money instead of leading a trial against Siemens. [...]

[...] Through this convention, a penal convention on corruption was created in 1999. Then, the convention of the United Nations (or Convention of Nerida) against corruption was signed in 2003 by more than 190 countries in the world. It came into force in 2005. The states that signed this convention have to punish officially cases of corruption involving public agents, or during international transactions. The OECD takes an active part in informing and advising the countries, making recommendations in order to limit and to control the corruption. [...]

[...] The two biggest competitors in this field of are Areva and Siemens. It's the government who will make the decision of which company will build all these wind turbines. If Alstom explains how their wind turbines are better technically and more cost effective directly to the government, the government can't contract them. Even when they explain that working with Alstom will create jobs and innovation in this country. This is because, according to European law, competition must be free and we can't protect our country's businesses against other European countries' businesses. [...]