A new report, published today, ranks different countries in order of how likely their businesses are to engage in bribery.
The survey of 3,000 professionals, from different companies across the world, shows that the UK falls below Germany, Japan, Australia and Singapore in terms of the amount of businesses that bribe politicians, governments and other businesses.
The Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium are the three countries with the least bribery in business. Mexico, China and Russia are the most likely to have problems with bribery between businesses, according to the report, by Transparency International.
The business leaders who were consulted for the report said companies pay bribes to public officials in order to win public tenders, avoid regulation, speed up government processes or influence policy but companies are almost as likely to pay bribes to other businesses. 80 percent of global exports and foreign investment comes from the 28 countries mentioned in the report (equal to around $15,800 Billion).
There is no way to say how much of this was transferred to private bank accounts of corrupt officials. G20 leaders will meet at the Cannes summit today, to recognise steps taken by G20 countries including China, Russia, Indonesia and India in criminalising foreign bribery and implement further measures to prevent businesses from dealing in bribes.

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Tagged in: anti-corruption, bribery, bribes, business, corruption, transparency international