Bribes offered most often in India, China and Russia

Berlin, Germany - Transparency International, a website devoted to fighting corruption in governments and companies has published its annual league table of places most likely to offer bribes to business partners.

Out of 30 countries, India, China and Russia are the three worst offenders in this respect, while Switzerland, Sweden and Australia are the places where business dealings are least likely to be accompanied by bribery.

The Bribe Payers' Index (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 (most honest), but still routinely pay bribes, particularly in developing economies. Companies from emerging export powers rank among the least ethical in this respect. In the case of China and other emerging export powers, efforts to strengthen domestic anti-corruption activities have failed to extend abroad.

Respondents from lower income countries in Africa, for example, identified French and Italian companies as among the worst perpetrators.

“It is hypocritical that OECD-based companies continue to bribe across the globe, while their governments pay lip-service to enforcing the law. TI's Bribe Payers Index indicates that they are not doing enough to clamp down on overseas bribery,” said David Nussbaum, Chief Executive of Transparency International. “The enforcement record on international anti-bribery laws makes for short and disheartening reading.”

“Bribing companies are actively undermining the best efforts of governments in developing nations to improve governance, and thereby driving the vicious cycle of poverty,” said Transparency International Chair Huguette Labelle.

In the table below, the first column is the global rank, the second is the country, the third is the score (higher means fewer bribes) ands the final column is the country's share of global exports.

1    Switzerland    7.81    1.22    Sweden         7.62    1.33    Australia      7.59    1.04    Austria        7.50    0.55    Canada         7.46    3.56    UK             7.39    3.67    Gemany         7.34    9.58    Netherlands    7.28    3.49=   Belgium        7.22    3.39=   US             7.22    8.911   Japan          7.10    5.812   Singapore      6.78    2.213   Spain          6.63    1.914   UAE            6.62    1.115   France         6.50    4.316   Portugal       6.47    0.317   Mexico         6.45    2.118=  Hong Kong      6.01    2.818=  Israel         6.01    0.420   Italy          5.94    3.621   South Korea    5.83    2.822   Saudi Arabia   5.75    1.823   Brazil         5.65    1.224   South Africa   5.61    0.525   Malaysia       5.59    1.426   Taiwan         5.41    1.927   Turkey         5.23    0.728   Russia         5.16    2.429   China          4.94    5.530   India          4.62    0.9

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Website of Transparency Interantional