Russian Firms Most Likely to Use Bribery, Says Report

Russian businesses are most likely to use bribery to win foreign contracts despite President Dmitry Medvedev's promise to clamp down on corruption, according to a report out today.

As part of its 2008 Bribe Payers Index, anti-corruption body Transparency International interviewed 2,742 senior business executives from 22 of the world's most economically influential countries.

Russia was ranked last, closely followed by China, Mexico and India. TI said that half of respondents reported that companies from Russia often bribed politicians, political parties and low-level public officials when doing business abroad.

Medvedev said in the summer that corruption was a threat to national security and unveiled a plan to fight it. However, past Russian anti-graft drives have been limited to high-profile arrests of a few bribe-taking officials and have had little wider impact.

China also has a corruption problem, which it is trying to curb with a number of measures, including the death penalty.

Huguette Labelle, head of TI, said: "The BPI provides evidence that a number of companies from major exporting countries still use bribery to win business abroad, despite awareness of its damaging impact on corporate reputations and ordinary communities.

"The inequity and injustice that corruption causes makes it vital for governments to redouble their efforts to enforce existing laws and regulations on foreign bribery and for companies to adopt effective anti-bribery programs."

The UK came joint fifth with Germany and Japan. Tony Parton, partner in forensics services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: "It is clearly good news that corporate UK's efforts to improve its record on bribery have paid off as it moves up the index."

But he said it was not the time to be complacent. "Many UK companies are facing difficult financial times where it may seem tempting to win business at any price, including the payment of bribes. This, combined with the fact that companies are cutting costs and people, leaves them open to a very real threat that bribery will re-emerge," he said.

Firms from Belgium and Canada were perceived as least likely to be involved in corruption.

In the previous index, published in 2006, India was named as the worst, followed by China and Russia, while companies in Switzerland, Sweden and Australia were seen as least likely to use bribery.