Question

The result of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions was to:_______
a. Make it obligatory for companies to adopt a zero-tolerance approach toward grease payments.
b. Make grease payments mandatory in order to obtain exclusive preferential treatment in a host nation.
c. Consider payment of speed money to be moral, but illegal.
d. Make bribery of foreign officials a criminal offense but not consider facilitating payments a criminal offense.
e. Make it mandatory for companies to adhere to the pollution control standards of their home country in all the nations in which they do business.

Answer 1

Answer: d. Make bribery of foreign officials a criminal offense but not consider facilitating payments a criminal offense.

Explanation:

In December 1997, signatories accounting for around 70% of World Trade adopted the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions which stated that countries must install Legislative laws that would prohibit the bribing of foreign officials as well as strict penalties for parties who engage in such. This was done to ensure that the playing field was level so to speak instead of one company getting special treatment because they paid for it.

One concern however was that the Convention did not consider Facilitating Payments a criminal offence which means that it could be used as a bypass for the bribery of foreign officials to still happen.