I've read that French companies could deduct bribes from their taxable income up until the late 90's.
My counterparts at various European companies were not too embarrassed to admit they had bag men in places like Nigeria. The joke was Exxon's man could offer an official a nice pen. Elf could offer a Mercedes.
But it might also be stories told to explain losses (nothing wrong with our product, everyone else cheats) or even to motivate bribery (we do not want to, but everyone else does it).
Anyone got some good links on corruption evaluations?
I am more leaning towards the "stories we tell" approach.
Why do you think Marc Rich Co. agent in Nigeria was the first lady of the land at the time?
A major I know very well paid a certain Nigerian agent 5 cts/bbl on certain trades. Wonder why?
Enel would only purchase oil for years through a very limited number of purposely created companies that consisted of little more than a couple of guys in suits and a phone. They'd sell on to you Mr. Big Oil/Trader but only at a guaranteed margin of $6-8/ton (about 8-12% at the time). Wonder why?
How many Enel managers are being caught taking bribes even now?
Trust me on this, the biz was dirty as hell and the European traders, including state oil cos, were right in the thick of it.
What I refered to was stories like this joke:
The joke was Exxon's man could offer an official a nice pen. Elf could offer a Mercedes.
And the implication that Exxon does its business fair, it is the others that are dirty. That reminded me of similar stories of how swedish companies are honest and thus fooled by their crocked foreign competitors.
So what I am disputing is if indeed Exxon did not offer more then a pen.
US companies are not virgins in the forest. No argument there.
A bribery scandal (by way of agents) was recently uncovered by a swedish documentary. JAS Gripen was sold and leased (two seperate deals) to the Czech republic and some pretty serious money changed hands to make it so.
I was rather shocked that anyone was surpried we do it too. If we didn't, we wouldn't get any planes sold. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Transparency International
Publish What You Pay "Ne te courbe que pour aimer..." René Char
Found this:
Overseas bribery by companies from the world’s export giants is still common, despite the existence of international anti-bribery laws criminalising this practice, according to the Transparency International 2006 Bribe Payers Index (BPI), the most comprehensive survey of its kind to date. The BPI looks at the propensity of companies from 30 leading exporting countries to bribe abroad. Companies from the wealthiest countries generally rank in the top half of the Index, but still routinely pay bribes, particularly in developing economies. Companies from emerging export powers India, China and Russia rank among the worst. In the case of China and other emerging export powers, efforts to strengthen domestic anti-corruption activities have failed to extend abroad.
The BPI looks at the propensity of companies from 30 leading exporting countries to bribe abroad. Companies from the wealthiest countries generally rank in the top half of the Index, but still routinely pay bribes, particularly in developing economies. Companies from emerging export powers India, China and Russia rank among the worst. In the case of China and other emerging export powers, efforts to strengthen domestic anti-corruption activities have failed to extend abroad.
With a nice chart. The chart is based on perception of bribiness. A top value of ten is no bribes coming from that countries companies and zero is bribes coming out of their ears.
Some countries (choosen by me):
1 Switzerland 7.81 2 Sweden 7.62 ... 6 UK 7.39 7 Germany 7.34 ... 10 US 7.22 11 Japan 7.10 ... 13 Spain 6.63 ... 15 France 6.50 ... 20 Italy 5.94 ... 22 Saudi Arabia 5.75 ... 28 Russia 5.16 29 China 4.94 30 India 4.62
