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National Cultures, Corruption Practices and Corruption Indices Cont...

The nature of the industry is the deciding factor of the corruption levels in that industry. Pharmaceutical industry is highly vulnerable to corruption because it is heavily regulated by government bodies.⁹ The education sector is also not free from corruption as there is a discretionary interface between public officers and private operators.¹⁰ Other sectors like forestry, electricity, water, security, etc., are no exception. Firms in industries with high involvement of public officials, like export, import, public construction, etc., where the officials’ decision can directly affect the firm’s business were typically found prone to bribery.

According to the interviews with business people, conducted by experts of Information Science for Democracy (INDEM) fund and Public Organization of Small and Medium Enterprises (OPORA), the causes for corruption in business and obstacles in non-corrupt business practices are many Companies often forget that corruption can damage their core asset, the reputation. Companies like Boeing11 and Enron12 have gone through it. Further, corruption in business can reduce competition and bring in inefficiencies. However, there were no measures that could find the level of bribery. In an attempt to find out the level of bribery in different continents, TI initiated 'Bribe Payers Index' (BPI) - a report about the likelihood of paying bribes across industries – in 1999. Instead of bribe takers, who are generally scathed, BPI is an attempt to find out the potential bribe payers. A survey conducted among senior business executives about their perceived probability of paying bribes in foreign countries formed the base of the BPI-2008. Among the 22 countries surveyed, Russia was ranked the most likely to pay bribes while doing business abroad and Belgium was found the least likely to do it13 .

Further, based on the bribe payers' survey, different industries were also ranked according to their levels of corruption. However, these rankings were not only for foreign bribery but also for the overall corruption of the industry. Two lists, with the first one showing the bribery of public officials and the second one showing state capture, the most dangerous form of corruption, were prepared. The first list shows bribery of public officials by the sector, where the bribe was usually paid to speed things up and are often considered petty. The second list shows the degree to which the industry players influence politicians and public officials to change the laws or regulations or policies, in their favour

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9]"Corruption in the pharmaceutical industry",http://www.transparency.org/global_priorities/other_thematic_issues/health/pharmaceutical_industry
10]Hallak Jaques and Poisson Muriel, "Ethics and Corruption in Education", http://www.unesco.org/iiep/PDF/Forum15.pdf,November 2001
11]Pae Peter, "US: Boeing’s CEO Steps Down Amid Scandal", http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=7847, December 2nd 2003
12]Milman Gregory J, "New Scandals, Old Lessons: Financial ethics after Enron", http://www.thefreelibrary.com/New+scandals,+old+lessons+financial+ethics+after+Enron.+%28Ethics%29.-a089274997,
13]"Beyond Passive Compliance: A Proactive Approach to Reducing Corruption", http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/bpi, September 26th 2007