OUMM3203 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

1.0 Introduction

Bribery is an act of giving money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient.
Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving,
receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or other person
in charge of a public or legal duty.
The bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipient's conduct. It may be any money,
good, right in action, property, preferment, privilege, emolument, object of value, advantage, or
merely a promise or undertaking to induce or influence the action, vote, or influence of a person
in an official or public capacity.
In economics, the bribe has been described as rent. Bribery in bureaucracy has been
viewed as a reason for the higher cost of production of goods and services.

1.1 Forms of bribery

Many types of bribes exist: tip, gift, sop, perk, skim, favor, discount, waived fee/ticket,
free food, free ad, free trip, free tickets, sweetheart deal, kickback/payback, funding, inflated sale
of an object or property, lucrative contract, donation, campaign contribution, fundraiser,
sponsorship/backing, higher paying job, stock options, secret commission, or promotion (rise of
position/rank).
One must be careful of differing social and cultural norms when examining bribery.
Expectations of when a monetary transaction is appropriate can differ from place to place.
Political campaign contributions in the form of cash, for example, are considered criminal acts of
bribery in some countries, while in the United States, provided they adhere to election law, are
legal. Tipping, for example, is considered bribery in some societies, while in others the two
concepts may not be interchangeable.
In some Spanish-speaking countries, bribes are referred to as "mordida" (literally, "bite");
in Arab countries they are Baksheesh or Bakshish. However, Bakshish is more akin to tipping.
French-speaking countries often use the expressions "dessous-de-table" ("under-the-table"
commissions), "pot-de-vin" (literally, "wine-pot"), or "commission occulte" ("secret
commission" or "kickback"). While the last two expressions contain inherently a negative

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connotation, the expression "dessous-de-table" can be often understood as a commonly accepted

business practice (for instance, on the occasion of a real estate transaction before the notary, a
partial payment made between the buyer and seller; needless to say, this is a good way to launder
money). In German, the common term is Schmiergeld ("smoothing money").
The offence may be divided into two great classes: the one, where a person invested with
power is induced by payment to use it unjustly; the other, where power is obtained by purchasing
the suffrages of those who can impart it. Likewise, the briber might hold a powerful role and
control the transaction; or in other cases, a bribe may be effectively extracted from the person
paying it, although this is better known as extortion.
The forms that bribery take are numerous. For example, a motorist might bribe a police
officer not to issue a ticket for speeding, a citizen seeking paperwork or utility line connections
might bribe a functionary for faster service.
Bribery may also take the form of a secret commission, a profit made by an agent, in the
course of his employment, without the knowledge of his principal. Euphemisms abound for this
(commission, sweetener, kick-back etc.) Bribers and recipients of bribery are likewise numerous
although bribers have one common denominator and that is the financial ability to bribe.
As indicated on the pages devoted to political corruption, efforts have been made in
recent years by the international community to encourage countries to dissociate and incriminate
as separate offences, active and passive bribery. From a legal point of view, active bribery can be
defined for instance as the promising, offering or giving by any person, directly or indirectly, of
any undue advantage [to any public official], for himself or herself or for anyone else, for him or
her to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions. (article 2 of the Criminal
Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) of the Council of Europe). Passive bribery can be
defined as the request or receipt [by any public official], directly or indirectly, of any undue
advantage, for himself or herself or for anyone else, or the acceptance of an offer or a promise of
such an advantage, to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions (article 3 of
the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173)).
The reason for this dissociation is to make the early steps (offering, promising, requesting
an advantage) of a corrupt deal already an offence and, thus, to give a clear signal (from a
criminal policy point of view) that bribery is not acceptable. Besides, such a dissociation makes
the prosecution of bribery offences easier since it can be very difficult to prove that two parties

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(the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker) have formally agreed upon a corrupt deal. Besides, there is
often no such formal deal but only a mutual understanding, for instance when it is common
knowledge in a municipality that to obtain a building permit one has to pay a "fee" to the
decision maker to obtain a favourable decision.

2.0 Overview of bribery

The nexus between bribery and corruption must be fully comprehended at the outset of
this paper. This is because there can be no bribery without corruption. Corruption refers to the
misuse of entrusted power for private gain. Corruption is a broader term in which lesser evils
such as bribery, nepotism and even misappropriation fall under as can be seen from Nye’s
definition of corruption:

‘behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of a public role because of private regarding
(personal, close family, private clique) pecuniary or status gains, or violates rules against the
exercise of certain types of private regarding influence. This includes such behaviour as bribery
(use of a reward to pervert the judgment of a person in a position of trust); nepotism (bestowal of
patronage by reason of ascriptive relationship rather than merit); and misappropriation (illegal
appropriation of public funds for private regarding uses)’.

Bribery can also be an offer, a payment or a promise to pay money or goods, favour, an
advantage, privilege, property or an object of value to a person in order to influence his views,
actions or conduct. Bribery is viewed in two ways. These are bribery according to rule and
bribery against the rule. Bribery according to rule is where a bribe is paid in order to receive
preferential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law.
For instance, a builder offers to pay money to a building inspector in order that his
building premises are inspected. Bribery against the rule is where a bribe is paid to receive
preferential treatment or obtain services for which the bribe receiver is prohibited from doing.
For instance, an accused person offers to pay money to the prosecuting officer in order
not to get charged to court. For an act to be seen as a bribe, there will be an understanding that
the thing offered, paid or promised to be paid is meant to influence the views, actions and
conduct of the receiver who if he accepts must reciprocate the gesture by performing the

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intended act. It is for this reason that general gifts and tips (usually given as a token of
appreciation for good services) cannot be considered as bribes.
Bribes are more or less illegal and immoral agreements between the bribe giver and
receiver for the performance of an act in exchange for an object of value for the purpose of
influencing the receiver views, actions or conduct in order to gain special treatment. In most
jurisdictions bribery is seen as a crime, which is punishable by a term of imprisonment, a fine or
a combination of the two. The bribe giver and receiver are both culpable and as such most
jurisdictions treat them as offending parties. In some other jurisdictions bribery may be treated
with less severity and may be more acceptable as a norm or part of the society. It is for this
reason that bribes in such jurisdictions have been given names like ‘grease money’ in order to oil
the views of the receiver and make him swing into action. Bribery can take place in both public
and private capacities. Public capacity involves public officials or people who are being paid by
the taxpayer and private capacity involves anyone not being paid by the taxpayer.
The saying ‘it takes two to tango’ is an apt description of the problem of bribery. This is
because there are two sides to it. These are the demand and supply side. The demand side of
bribery involves the asking of the bribe by the receiver who can request this bribe for himself or
on behalf of someone else. He can also make this request directly or indirectly. If the person
demanding the bribe is acting on behalf of someone else he will be seen to be an accomplice to
the crime. On the other hand, the supply side of bribery deals with the offer, the payment or the
promise to pay the bribe by the giver to the receiver. Similar to the demand side, the giver of the
bribe in the supply side can also be acting either for himself or on behalf of someone else or can
also give the bribe directly or indirectly.
Bribery can also be viewed vertically from top to bottom and vice versa. Bribery from top
to bottom is where the bribery takes place at the highest levels of government and some of the
bribe payments trickle down to the lower officials as ‘hush money’; while bribe from bottom to
top is where numerous bribes are paid to lower officials and a percentage of the payment is
passed on to higher officials in the level of hierarchy.
Most international legal instruments deal with the supply side of bribery particularly
bribery of foreign public officials. This is because the demand side is usually handled by the
laws of the host country or the laws of the country in which the bribe receiver is subject. Some of
these legal instruments will form the subject matter of the ensuing chapter

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3.0 Economic analysis on the act of bribery

Bribery is defined as "the offering, promising or giving something in order to influence a

public official in the execution of his/her official duties" (OECD Observer, 2000). Bribes can
take the form of money, other pecuniary advantages, such as scholarship for a child's college
education, or non-pecuniary benefits, such as favorable publicity. In the international context,
bribery involves a business firm from country A offering financial or non-financial inducements
to officials of country B to obtain a commercial benefit.
Transparency International defines corruption as "the abuse of public office for private
gain." The non-profit organization produces annually its survey of countries ranked on the basis
of how corrupt they are perceived to be. Known as the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), it is
based on "the misuse of public power for private benefit, with a focus, for example, on bribe
taking by public officials in public procurement" (www.transparency.org). The CPI has emerged
as a prominent measure of the extent of bribery in international business and is increasingly used
by scholars to empirically ascertain patterns and relationships with other variables to understand
this subject. The focus of this paper is on bribery, which is a major form of corruption.
The enormous growth in international trade and investment over the past fifty years has
been accompanied by an increase in bribery. The newspapers regularly report bribery scandals in
the conduct of international business (e.g., Crawford, 2008). The World Bank estimated that five
per cent of the exports to developing countries go to corrupt officials (Moss, 1997). It is
estimated that more than US$1 trillion is paid in bribes each year (Labelle, 2006). The chairman
of the U.S. branch of Transparency International, the non-governmental organization dedicated
to combating corruption, has noted that many analysts feel "there has been a gradual escalation.
At one point, five per cent (of a contract price) was standard. That's crept up gradually until now
it's in the twenty to thirty per cent range" (Andelman, 1998).
If bribery is a burden to international firms, it is even more costly to the countries where
they are prevalent. It has been estimated that money lost to bribery is the largest potential source
of funding available to many new democratic governments aside from foreign direct investment
(Hamra, 2000). The World Bank believes that tackling bribery can lead to significant increases in

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national income and faster economic growth and to improvements in quality of life issues such
as child mortality rates (The Costs of Corruption, 2004).
The seriousness of the issue has prompted governments, intergovernmental bodies, non-
governmental organizations, and commercial firms to control and discourage bribe giving and
bribe taking. The U.S. was the first industrialized country to address this issue when, in 1977, it
enacted the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) making it a crime for any American firm (and
foreign firms which issue negotiable securities on U.S. stock exchanges) to offer, promise, or
make payments or gifts of anything of value to foreign officials, politicians, and political parties
with the intention of changing policies or to secure the suspension of a legal norm (U. S.
Department of Justice). In 1999, the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public
Officials in International Business Transactions signed by the 30 member countries of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and six other nations came
into effect (OECD, 2002). The main goals of the treaty are to prevent bribery in international
business transactions by requiring countries to make it a criminal offence to bribe a foreign
public official, to have in place adequate sanctions and reliable means for detecting and
enforcing the offence, and prohibit bribes from being considered a business expense and thus tax
deductible. Financial agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and
International Monetary Fund have linked aid disbursements to improvements in administrative
practices to eliminate corruption (Lewis, 1997, Rose-Ackermann, 1997).
The World Bank has barred firms which engage in bribery from doing business with it. It
has established a program to let firms that have worked on bank-funded projects to voluntarily
disclose and has found that a number of companies admitted to paying bribes (Corpwatch, 2006).
The World Bank has created aggregate governance research indicators for 213 countries around
six dimensions, one of which is control of corruption. These annual figures provide beth a
snapshot and a trend line of the quality of governance in individual countries and on a
comparative basis (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi, 2006). Non-governmental organizations
such as Transparency International, through their annual rankings of perceived corruption among
countries, spotlight this subject.
Many businesses and industry groups have become conscious of their ethical conduct and
the need to comply with the emerging web of laws. Consequently, they have created codes of
conduct for their employees. Private trade associations such as the Business and Industry

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Advisory Committee to the OECD and the International Chamber of Commerce have developed
anti-bribery programs (Yannaca-Small, 1995). Thus, there have been worldwide efforts to
address both the demand for and supply of bribes.
Three strands of literature are reviewed here. They are (a) determinants of bribery and (b)
determinants of economic growth. The World Bank has developed a simple formula to describe
bribery: C = M + D-A-S where C standards for corruption, M for monopoly, D for discretion, A
for accountability, and S for salary. The formula indicates that bribery tends to be high in
societies where public officials earn low salaries but have a lot of discretion and limited
accountability. Highly regulated economies create conditions for corruption to thrive. Businesses
offer bribes and officials seek bribes to suspend the regulations.
Husted (1999) examined the role of economic and cultural variables and found that a
significant inverse relationship exists between perceived levels of bribery in a country and the
per capita income in purchasing power parity terms. Cultural dimensions--using Hofstede's
classification--of masculinity and power distance were significant factors (Hofstede, 1980).
Sanyal and Samanta (2002) confirmed Husted's findings and found that income distribution in a
country was another significant economic factor. Similarly, Getz and Volkema (2001) found that
bribery in a country was related to wealth and so was power distance and uncertainty avoidance.
Uncertainty avoidance moderated the relationship between economic adversity and bribery.
Thus, there is an empirical basis to suggest that certain economic and cultural factors determine
perceived levels of bribery. Sanyal and Samanta (2003) have also found that economic freedom
and level of human development are associated with levels of perceived bribery in a country with
open economies and high level of human development inversely related to bribery. All these
studies found that per capita income is inversely related to bribery.
The level of economic development in the world is very uneven. This is reflected in per
capita gross national income (formerly gross national product) in purchasing parity terms of as
high as $42,000 in the U.S.A. and as low as $830 in Yemen. Table 1 provides an overview of
this worldwide disparity.
Worldwide, between 1990 and 2004, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty
fell from nearly a third to less than one-fifth. Economic growth in the developing world has
averaged 4.8 per cent a year since 2000, more than double the rate of growth in high-income
economies, which averaged 2.0 per cent a year. The decline in poverty has been limited in

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countries that have experienced slower (or sometimes none at all) economic growth, usually
measured by changes in the gross domestic income (GDI) from one period to another. Countries
such as China, India, and Vietnam which have exhibited strong economic growth--between 1990
and 2003, the average annual GDP increases for these countries were 9.6, 5.9, and 9.5 percentage
respectively--have been able to pull millions of people out of absolute poverty. In contrast, in
Sub-Saharan Africa, where the growth rate was 2.8 per cent, in 2002, 300 million people lived on
less than $1 a day, an increase of 139 million people over 1981. This is in sharp contrast with
East Asia, where the number of extremely poor people fell by 580 million people, to 12 per cent
of the population. World Development Indicators data indicate that economic growth is linked to
sound policies, well-targeted aid, better governance, and a good investment climate (World
Bank, 2006).
The relationship between economic growth and bribery has been examined extensively in
the literature, beginning with Mauro (1995). In general, the studies find a negative correlation
between bribery and economic growth (Bardhan, 1997). Fisman and Svensson (2000) uses
evidence from Uganda to confirm that bribery retards development at the micro level. They
studied the relationship between bribe payments, taxes, and firm growth in Uganda for the period
1995-97 and found that a one percentage point increase in the bribery rate was associated with a
three percentage point reduction in firm growth.
Trade has proven to be an engine for growth in East Asia, equal to 81 per cent of the
region's GDP, which far outstrips trade's 55-per cent share of GDP at the global level. Rapid
expansion of China's trade has not only sustained its growth, but has also helped its regional
trading partners integrate faster into global manufacturing. Experts of goods and services grew
by 10 to 28 per cent in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, and
contributed to economic growth rates over six per cent in 2004 in all of these countries. In
contrast, trade plays a much smaller role in Latin America and the Caribbean, making up barely
52 per cent of total output. Exports from Latin American countries have expanded by only 4.5
per cent a year since 2000, less than one-third the growth of exports by East Asia and less than
half the growth of exports from South Asia and Europe and Central Asia.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) is another engine of economic growth. A study by Habib
and Zurawicki (2002) looked at aggregate investment flows from seven countries among
themselves and 82 other countries over a three year period (1996-98) and related those flows to

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the individual country's CPI. They concluded that "corruption is a serious obstacle to
investment". They also found a negative effect due to the difference in bribery levels between
home and host countries suggesting that investing firms are reluctant to deal with the conditions
prevalent in an operating environment with a different level of bribery. In an undated World
Bank document, Smarzynska and Wei studied the impact of bribery in a host country on the
preference of foreign investors for a joint venture or a wholly-owned subsidiary. They conclude,
based on firm-level data, that bribery reduces FDI and shifts the ownership structure towards
joint ventures. They also report that U.S. firms are more averse to joint ventures in corrupt
countries than investors of other nationalities. This latter finding is consistent with that of Hines
(1995) who attributed the reluctance of U.S. multinational firms to avoid joint ventures in high
bribe countries to the prohibitions embedded in the FCPA. In another study on the effect of
bribery on FDI, Wei (2000) looked at bilateral investment from 12 source countries to 45 host
countries and found that a rise in bribery in a country affected inward FDI there. The study also
noted that while U.S. firms were averse to bribery in host countries, they were not necessarily
more so than average OECD country, in spite of the FCPA. Sanyal and Samanta (forthcoming),
in a study of U.S. outward FDI found that while high levels of bribery in recipient countries
discouraged U.S. investment there, there were important exceptions. Countries with huge
domestic markets (e.g., China) continued to attract U.S. FDI irrespective of the level of bribery.

4.0 Legal analysis on the act of bribery

“Bribery in criminal law refers to the improper acceptance by a public official, juror, or someone
bound by a duty to act impartially, of any gain or advantage to the beneficiary, including any
gain or advantage to a third person by the desire or consent of the beneficiary. A gain or
advantage may be a pecuniary benefit in the form of money, property, commercial interests or
anything else the primary significance of which is economic gain.”

“Every person who shall voluntarily offer or receive any benefit as consideration to influence an
official act to be done or not done, shall be guilty of bribery, and upon conviction thereof shall be
imprisoned for a period of not more than three years, and fined three times the value of the

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benefit offered or received, or both. If the value of the benefit cannot be determined in dollars,
the fine shall be not more than $5,000.00.”

In my opinion, Section 502’s definition of “bribery” can very well cover the sort of
payouts that ETG proposes in its brochure to make to Yapese citizens and the Yap State
Government.
Now, there are several issues. First, would ETG’s promise of a payout to Yapese citizens
who are not Yap State Government officials qualify as a bribe? In my opinion, this is likely so
according to Section 502. Section 502 deals with the influencing of an “official act to be done or
not done,” but the Section does not specifically restrict the crime of bribery to offers made to
government officials who may receive bribes to influence their official acts. Given the way that
Section 502 is worded, as long as any person who receives a “benefit as consideration” is in a
position “to influence an official act to be done or not done,” then the voluntary offer of such a
“benefit” to that person for the purpose of getting that person to influence an official act
constitutes a bribe under Section 502. An enterprising lawyer can argue that ETG’s promise of a
payout to non-government-official Yapese citizens is intended to get those Yapese citizens to
influence the Yap State Government to, among other things, repeal Yap’s anti-gambling laws
and allow for ETG to carry out casino operations in Yap. In that scenario, then, ETG’s promise
of a payout arguably constitutes a bribe under Section 502.
The second issue is whether ETG’s promise of an “annual gaming tax” to the Yap State
Government constitutes a bribe under Section 502 of the Yap State Code. Of course, if a license
fee or tax is legitimate and provided-for under relevant state/national laws and regulations, then
the payment (or the promised payment) of such a fee/tax should not be considered a bribe.
Section 502 accounts for this sort of possibility by limiting bribes to offers that are made
“voluntarily.” This means that if ETG is required by law to furnish some sort of tax or fee, then
ETG’s furnishing of that tax or fee is not “voluntar[y],” and so ETG’s payment (or promised
payment) of that tax or fee should not be deemed a bribe.
However, in this particular case, I believe that Yap State Law does not allow for any sort
of “gaming tax.” Indeed, as far as I know, there are a limited number of taxes and fees that are
paid to the State of Yap—including excise tax, hotel occupancy tax, motor vehicle tax, and so
forth—and none of those items include a “gaming tax.” There are also no provisions under the

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FSM Code for a “gaming tax”—the FSM primarily collects taxes/fees on wages and salaries, on
gross revenues, and on fishing licenses, and although one may argue that a “gaming tax” is
similar to a “gross revenue tax,” they are not, in my opinion, the same tax. (For one thing, a gross
revenue tax is broader than a limited “gaming tax.” For another, tax codes are notoriously very
keen on specificity in language, and if a tax code has no specific mention of a special provision
for a “gaming tax,” then the common practice in tax law is to not recognize such a provision.)
Even if the FSM Tax Code contains a provision for a “gaming tax,” that still should not matter,
because ETG’s brochure proposes that a “gaming tax” shall be paid to the Yap State
Government, not the FSM National Government.
In light of the foregoing discussion, it is my opinion that ETG’s promise of an “annual
gaming tax” to the Yap State Government is, in essence, a “voluntar[y] offer” according to
Section 502 of the Yap State Code. If we are to assume that ETG makes such an offer “as
consideration to influence an official act to be done,” e.g., to get the Yap State Government to
legally support ETG’s proposed Project in Yap, then that may constitute bribery under Section
502.

5.0 Ethical analysis on the act of bribery

During the early 2000s, Ireland was categorized as a tiger economy, which is an economy
that experiences brief but rapid growth. Since Ireland offers low corporate tax rates, companies
like Google and IBM placed European headquarters in the country, and made Ireland a hub for
big business. For a time, Ireland enjoyed this prosperity—but it soon came to a halt when the
collapse of the U.S. economy triggered a worldwide domino effect. Now, Ireland is unable to
pay off debt, and may need to be bailed out by other affluent countries like Germany.
While the Irish government is trying to find ways to decrease the deficit, one startling
proposal made by a blogger recommends that Irish officials bribe credit-rating agencies to inflate
credit scores in order to keep interest costs on debt payments low. There are deficiencies in this
proposal, however; it assumes that a higher credit score will solve all of Ireland’s financial
problems. There is no guarantee that bribing a credit agency will bring about the change
necessary to get Ireland out of debt. This argument also may not be feasible since bribery is an

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illegal act, but let’s assume that such a proposal is a viable option for Ireland. In terms of ethics,
there are pros and cons.
When doing ethical analysis, there are four models that serve as a framework to structure
an argument: utilitarianism in terms of actions, utilitarianism in terms of rules, rights & duties,
and virtue. Utilitarianism is the process of weighing benefits and harms, and choosing the option
that offers the most benefits for the greatest number of people. Rule-utilitarian thought focuses
on benefits and harms created by rules, while act-utilitarian thought calculates the consequences
of actions themselves. The rights & duties model chooses the course that respects what others are
entitled to (rights) and obligations a stakeholders has to fulfill them (duties). The last model,
virtue, chooses the option that enforces good habits of character for yourself and others. Each
model can be applied when evaluating whether bribery is ethical or not.
In terms of benefits and harms to the Irish economy, the benefits of bribing credit-rating
agencies would have a significant impact. Government would be able to get a handle on its
interest payments and pay off debt quicker, without the financial support of other countries. Such
benefits would likely reduce unemployment and drastically increase the quality of life for Irish
citizens. For this argument, harms are minimal—there is no harm that comes to the credit-rating
agencies if no one finds out of such bribery. If discovered, the reputation of the agency may be
diminished, but that certainly does not outweigh the benefits associated with helping the 4.5
million citizens of Ireland.
Another argument in favor of bribery has to do with duties. The Irish government has an
obligation to do what it takes to ensure the health and happiness of its citizens. While Ireland
enjoyed prosperity for a short time in the early 2000s, the government may have made poor
choices that led to Ireland’s current financial position. One blogger claims the reason for the
crisis stems from government’s decision to guarantee all bank liabilities, a promise that Ireland
could not keep. Doesn’t the government then, have a duty to citizens to use whatever means are
available to restore the economy to a normal state? If the government has the power to bribe
credit-rating agencies to help stimulate the economy, it should fulfill its promise of serving in the
best interests of citizens.
While there are ethical arguments in favor of bribery, there are also arguments not in
favor. Although the action of the bribery may bring more benefits than harms to the people of
Ireland in this particular situation, the rule that forbids bribery brings more benefits than harms in

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all situations. There are countless historical examples of individuals using bribery as a means to
gain power or money that is used for evil; in fact, I argue that there are more examples of bribery
used for immorality rather than for good. Because of the benefits that arise from outlawing
bribery, it would be unethical for the Irish government to use such tactics, even if it greatly
benefited its citizens.
Although the blogger notes that credit-rating agencies are already involved with bribery,
it would not be ethical to allow it in this case because it undermines the functional purpose of a
credit-rating system. These agencies are created so that investors have a resource to be able to
assess the risk with investing in bond markets. By using bribes to enhance credit scores, these
scores become biased and are no longer a useful tool for potential investors. There is no way to
ethically justify bribery in a credit-rating system because it goes against the very purpose of why
such a system exists in an economy.
The most powerful argument against bribery is related to the virtue model. Bribery is a
form of corruption that alters a behavior or outcome based on a reward. Rather than encouraging
good habits of character, such as hard work and judiciousness, the action teaches individuals to
cheat in order to get ahead. By using such a tactic to pay off debt, the Irish government is
justifying to citizens that the ends justify the means. Such examples will likely lead to corrupt
behavior within the Irish economy, because the government did not fulfill its duty of being a
moral representation of the country it administers. If the government engages in bribery, what
would stop business owners, politicians, lobbyists, and other stakeholders from doing the same?
This would open Pandora’s Box.
Based on my ethical analysis, I believe Daria’s proposal is unethical based on the
principles of rule-utilitarian thought and virtue. While there are benefits for Ireland that arise
from stimulating the economy, that harms that occur from distorting the credit-rating system as
well as encouraging citizens to engage in immoral behavior outweigh such benefits. It may have
to rely on neighboring countries to pay off debt, but bribing credit-rating agencies is certainly not
the ethical means to solve Ireland’s problems.

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Conclusion
In conclusion bribery is not an issue that can be answered immediately at hand
considering the type of situations that regulate its ethical character. We need to remeber that
bribery is a constant ethical issue. And becuase bribery are only sometimes acceptable it is in a
moral free space. Even with a deductive definition for bribey and its set of guidelines I cannot
conclude that bribery is always unethical. However, if I was to limit business practices solely to
our mother country (United States of America) I will stand by my argument that bribery is
unjustifiable. A basic point to remember, is that bribery is unethical because it undermines the
social and economic systems. It weakens market efficiency and predictability, thus denying
people their right to a minimal standard of living. Consider the two roles, to be a "realist" is to
justify bribery because "international business is a rough game and no place for the naive
idealist," or the role of a "moralist" that believes that cultural relativity is no excuse for unethical
behavior.

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 OUMM3203 PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

References

Andelman, D. A. (1998), Bribery: The New Global Outlaw. Management Review

Caves, R. (1982), Multinational Enterprise and Economic Analysis. New York:

Cambridge University Press.

Corpwatch (2006), Firms Admit Paying Bribes in World Bank Program. CA: Oakland.
(www.corpwatch.org/article).

Leonard J. B (2006). Business & Professional Ethics for Directors,Executives &

Accountants, (4thEdition) ,Toronto,: ThomsonHigher Education.

Dr. Muhammad Diah Jurini (2008). “OUM320 Professional Ethics” ,(cetakan kelapan)
Seri Kembangan Selangor: Open UniversityMalaysia (OUM).

Mok Soon Sang (2005),Siri Pendidikan PTK (Teras DanProfesional),Kuala Lumpur:

Multimedia –ES Resources Sdn Bhd.

Abdul Rahim M. (2001) Ilmu Pendidikan Untuk KPLI,. SungaiBesi, Selangor: Sanon
Printing Corporation Sdn Bhd.

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