Every few years, Transparency International publishes its Bribe Payers Index. This unique multi-national assessment is a large-scale survey of subjective impressions conducted among people in the business community and it specifically measures the extent of bribery practiced overseas by businesses based in the world’s main exporting countries.
Regrettably, Taiwan has been near the bottom of the class over the years, as can be seen from a list of its rankings relative to the total number of countries surveyed. Taiwan was ranked 19th out of 28 countries in 2011, 14th out of 22 in 2008, 26th out of 30 in 2006, 19th out of 21 in 2002 — only doing better than China and Russia — and 17th out of 19 in 1999, when only South Korea and China did worse.
Overall, Taiwan has been improving over the years, but the best ranking it has been given is 14th, which it achieved in 2008. By 2011, it not only failed to improve, but fell back to 19th place, while Japan and South Korea rose markedly in the rankings.
Chinese authorities reportedly suspect Taiwanese television producer Angie Chai (柴智屏) of having offered bribes. It is as yet unclear whether she has really been involved in bribery, but the fact remains that reports of illicit and dishonest activities by Taiwanese businesspeople abroad, especially in China, are commonplace. This, and Taiwan’s worse-than-average performance in the index, show that it is time for society to reflect on the problem and for the government to do something about it.
Improving the nation’s reputation with regard to bribery overseas would not just save face, but would also bring more deep-reaching benefits. If Taiwan could overtake South Korea on the index and approach Japan, it would not just gain face by improving its international image, it would also give overseas investors greater confidence that the nation’s law enforcement is fair and transparent, leading them to increase direct investments in Taiwan and prompting economic development. This is the kind of tangible benefit that could accrue from such a positive change.
A close examination of the way in which South Korea and Japan improved their records regarding the payment of bribes overseas shows that they started out by signing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention. They then adopted the terms of the convention as domestic law and have accepted peer-monitoring of their progress in implementation and enforcement.
Although Taiwan is not able to sign the convention due to opposition from China, foreign affairs departments could make efforts for Taiwan to become a member of the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, which is responsible for monitoring the implementation and enforcement of the convention. Apart from that, the Ministry of Justice could demonstrate good faith by taking the initiative in asking Transparency International to include the nation in its implementation and enforcement reviews.
The most important thing is to be resolute in enforcing the law. Article 21, Paragraph 3 of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) states that “a public servant dealing with a foreign nation, Chinese mainland, Hong Kong [or] Macau” who offers bribes should be punished. This paragraph was added to the law when amendments to the act were passed on June 7, 2011, and it brought Taiwan’s legislation into line with that of other countries. Unfortunately there have thus far been no cases of this regulation being enforced. Considering Taiwan’s poor ranking in the index of overseas bribe payers, this lack of enforcement is particularly troubling.
Ernie Ko is vice executive director of Transparency International Chinese Taipei.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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