THE COST OF CORRUPTION
A necessary evil ?
Corruption costs the world at least $80bn a year. But bribery is nothing new: it is deeply embedded in our societies. In Europe bribery was institutionalised in the 1970s, in the form of commissions, provided they were paid to foreign civil servants. And though, at this same time, the US was making corruption of foreign officials a criminal offence, US companies carried on just as before via subsidiaries in tax havens. Attempts by the OECD to end the corruption of foreign nationals have met with resistance. So how realistic is it to think we can put an end to the practice ?
by Pierre Abramovici
Everyone has a word for it: hongbao in China, baksheesh in Arab countries, matabiche in central Africa, payola in the Philippines, propina in Latin America, pots de vin in France, or just plain bribery (1). But what does it involve? Daniel Bertosa, the public prosecutor of Geneva, offers a (...)
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