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Introduction:
“Politicians and public officials from the world’s leading industrial countries are ignoring the rot in
their own backyards and the criminal bribe-paying activities of multinational firms headquartered in
their countries.”
– Peter Eigen, Chairman, Transparency International, May 2002
Over the last fewyears,with the increased pace of globalisation,manyMultinational Companies
(MNCs) started their operations overseas – especially in emergingmarkets like Indiawhere corruption
is tentatively high.With themultinationals repeatedly involved in bribing the public officials, there
was concern about the anti-corruption laws prevailing in the countries where theseMNCs operated.
Hence, there have been increased investigations and enforcement actions against the corporations
and individuals across the world under US Foreign Corrupt PracticesAct (FCPA), 1977. In India, a
few multinational companies such as Dow Chemical Company, A.T. Kearney, Westinghouse Air
Brake Technologies Corporation and Xerox Corporation came under the purview of FCPAand had
to pay hefty amounts for their settlements.With such trends prevailing across many emerging and
least developed economies, is it feasible to have a good eye of governance over the global operations
of the companies? And to what extent is FCPA effectively involved in keeping vigilance over the
US-listed entities?
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