Received an email the other day from TRACE International asking us to plug their excellent BRIBEline website that seeks to document global corruption. The website records anonymous reporting of bribe demands:
Bribeline is a secure, multi-lingual website through which companies and individuals can anonymously report the bribe demands they receive. Making a report on BRIBEline is quick and easy. The online survey is available in Chinese and 20 other languages. Completing the survey involves answering no more than ten multiple-choice questions. No names are requested or collected, the individual is not asked if the bribe was paid, and reports made to BRIBEline are not used for investigations or prosecutions. From the reports, we hope to get a grip on what groups are demanding bribes, where they are demanding them, and under what circumstances.
I am not aware of any other websites or organizations attempting to collect this data and I urge all of our readers who have experienced such “requests” to document them on BRIBEline, which has been endorsed by the World Bank.
For more on corruption in China, check out the following:
– “Corruption In Asia: China Is Ten Out Of Thirteen”
– “China Corruption. It’s A Guy Thing?”
– “The Upside Of China Corruption”
Clients are constantly asking us about corruption in China and what they should do when asked to pay a “little extra.” Our unfailingly advice is not to pay. The risks of getting sucked in to having to pay more or of getting caught are just too high. Always. Any deal that requires such risks is not worth doing. Perhaps most importantly, nearly every time one of our clients has refused to pay the bribe (this is true of China and elsewhere), the deal goes through anyway.
