One of the main reasons Colombian business leaders pay bribes is to speed up paperwork - Transparency poll
BOGOTA (TrustLaw) - Nine out of 10 Colombian business leaders believe that firms offer bribes to do business in the Andean nation, a survey by a graft watchdog has found.
The survey by the Colombian chapter of Transparency International and Bogota’s Externado University, interviewed over 600 executives of big, medium and small-sized firms across eight of Colombia’s main cities.
Ninety three percent of those surveyed said, ‘there are businessmen and women who offer bribes during the course of business.’
“The data from this survey is an urgent call to Colombia to implement a culture based on principles and practices to prevent bribery in business,” said Colombia for Transparency, following the release of the survey this week.
According to the poll, the main reasons Colombian business leaders pay bribes are to speed up and facilitate the processing of paperwork and/or because a bribe was expected and/or solicited by a public official.
Just over 60 percent of those surveyed said they believed businesses paid bribes to public officials to bypass bureaucratic red tape, while 46 percent said bribes were paid because a public official had directly asked to receive a kickback.
Paying bribes to secure deals and favours is a necessary part of doing business in Colombia, the survey suggests. Six out of every ten business leaders surveyed said, ‘if bribes are not paid, then business is lost.’
Just fewer than 40 percent of executives believed their competitors paid and or offered brides to secure a business deal, the survey showed.
“Corruption in the public sector and dishonest actions by their competitors is what most de-motivates businessmen and women from implementing anti-bribery strategies,” the survey concluded.
The survey also revealed that four in every 10 executives thought donations to political campaigns were used as a form of bribery.
Some businesses in Colombia lack transparency and internal control processes to prevent corrupt practices and monitor the amount of money donated to politicians and political campaigns, the survey found.
Three-quarters of firms do not implement anti-bribery initiatives in a ‘planned and regular’ way, according to the survey. Nearly 60 percent of executives said their businesses lack mechanisms so that employees or third parties can denounce bribery in a confidential way.
In response to other recent graft studies carried out by Transparency for Colombia and a string of public corruption scandals dominating local headlines, Colombia’s leading newspaper, El Tiempo, commented in its editorial on Wednesday: “The persistence of corruption in the country’s political culture and in business is a heavy burden that Colombian society has been unable to eradicate.”
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