No Longer Business as Usual - Fighting Bribery and Corruption

October 2000

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Executive Summary

Why has the OECD, along with other members of the international community, mobilised to fight corruption? The answer is simple: corruption respects no borders, knows no economic distinctions and infects all forms of government. In the long run, no country can afford the social, political or economic costs that corruption entails. Not so long ago, bribing public officials in foreign countries to obtain business deals was, if not an acceptable, at least a tolerated business practice in many OECD countries. Today, corruption has moved to the top of the global political agenda as its dramatic impact on economic development and its corrosive effect on political stability and democratic political institutions has become increasingly obvious.

In the new millennium, the OECD and associated governments, which account for over 75% of trade and investment world-wide, will play by stricter rules. The Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions will outlaw the practice of bribing foreign officials, making competition for international business much more fair and open. Bribery in commercial transactions is only part of the problem. A whole arsenal of legal instruments to combat corruption has now been developed to improve ethical standards in the public sector, to end tax deductibility for bribes, to curtail money laundering, and to clean up public procurement practices. The private sector and civil society will continue to play a critical role in making these new rules a reality. This book provides the key elements needed to build and preserve corruption-free institutions, systems, and private enterprises.

Abstract of first chapter: Corruption - a Zero Sum Game

No Longer Business as Usual has encouraging things to say about successful initiatives in the anti-corruption battle, in which the OECD plays a major role.

• This first part starts with a detailed analysis of the causes and consequences of corruption.
• The following chapters deal extensively with the 1997 Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, which took the major step of making the bribery of foreign public officials a criminal act in all the signatory countries.
• Significant related areas such as tax deductibility and corruption in public procurement are also focused on.
• The first part compares the OECD Convention with other international anti-corruption instruments and examines the Organisation's strategy as a dynamic component of the broadening international effort against corruption as well as its process of monitoring the compliance of party countries with the Convention.

Abstract of second chapter: Prevention as the Best Remedy

As the Member countries of the OECD worked increasingly on anti-corruption issues, they came to realise both the complexities of the subject and its pervasive presence affecting many areas of the Organisation's work. A comprehensive approach to fight corruption requires measures to help prevent corruption from occurring, as well as measures to sanction it when it does.

This Part of the book explores three separate but related areas aimed at discouraging bribery and corruption:

• improving ethical conduct in the public service of the Member countries themselves, thus targeting the supply as well as the demand sides of the corruption market;
• combating money laundering (whose relevance to bribery in international business quickly became apparent);
• improving international corporate governance standards and increasing financial transparency, as essential weapons in the fight against corruption.

Abstract of third chapter: Globalising the Fight Against Corruption

In developing its anti-corruption initiatives, described in the preceding chapters, OECD has acquired a wide range of experience. The exchange of information with countries not members of the OECD has been an invaluable part of that experience.

This Part of the book examines the active, co-ordinated and indeed often pioneering programmes with non-members that have taken on lives of their own in the global struggle against bribery and corruption.

Abstract of forth chapter: Society's Gadflies

Governments cannot fight corruption alone. The preceding chapters have identified essential partners in the anti-corruption struggle: business and labour organisations, civil society, and the media.

Judging by what those who speak for them have to say, these groups do not shun their role in the fight; in fact, they eagerly seek it. Yet they also have pronounced views, some of which are critical of what governments have accomplished so far. In general, these observations do not concern what has been done. They remind us all that in the fight against corruption we have won a few battles, but we have still not won the war.