Thaindian News

Moscow, Nov 3 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russian companies are most likely to pay bribes while doing business abroad, says the latest “Bribe Payers Survey” by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.

The “2011 Bribe Payers Index” ranked 28 of the world’s largest economies according to the likelihood of companies from their countries to pay bribes abroad.

The index measured the level of bribery in 19 business sectors from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean) and was based on a poll of over 3,000 businessmen from the surveyed countries.

Russia scored just 6.1 points out of 10 and held the 28th place at the bottom of the index, just behind China at 27th place.

Dutch, Swiss, Belgian, German and Japanese companies got the top scores and were least prepared to pay bribes, the survey said.

Russia had also ranked at the bottom of the index in the previous survey published by Transparency International in 2008.

The countries ranked in the index covered all regions of the world and represented almost 80 percent of the total world market for goods, services and investment.

The most alarming fact was that companies from Russia and China, which invested $120 billion overseas in 2010, and were seen as most likely to pay bribes abroad, were increasingly active in global business, the survey said.

“It is of particular concern that China and Russia are at the bottom of the index,” Transparency said.

“Given the increasing global presence of businesses from these countries, bribery and corruption are likely to have a substantial impact on the societies in which they operate and on the ability of companies to compete fairly in these markets,” the watchdog added.

Russia’s bottom place in the Index came as no surprise because the Russian government is still trying to find effective tools to fight corruption, said Yelena Panfilova, head of the Russian office of Transparency International.

–IANS/RIA Novosti
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