The legislation which makes the bribery of foreign officials a criminal offence is now in force and we should reflect on the question of compliance. Of course the OECD has set up a monitoring mechanism, in which TI is playing an active role, but that is far from the end of the story. There has been a law against murder for many years, and police forces everywhere make great efforts to enforce it, but the practice still goes on. Over the last few months I have participated in a number of briefings which have been put on by major legal and accounting firms to introduce the new law to their clients. At several of these there have been very good discussions in which it has become apparent that even companies which deplore corruption, and are determined to take this opportunity to avoid it, will find serious difficulties in compliance.
Corruption is well entrenched in many countries in which Australian companies do business.
Many high officials are not only accustomed to receiving bribes, they are dependent on them for their lifestyle and their family's welfare, and some will go to considerable lengths to extort payments from rich foreigners. There will also be plenty of middle-men who depend on commissions from bribery for their livelihood, and who will, no doubt, present plausible arguments for making payments which might or might not be strictly legal. When there are serious language difficulties it may be hard to tell the truth from fabrication. Moreover, facilitation payments are deeply embedded in many countries and will be very hard to avoid, and sometimes it will be hard to distinguish legal from illegal payments. We should therefore acknowledge that compliance with the law will present real difficulties.