Transparency International Bribe Payers Index 2002
835 business experts in 15 leading emerging market countries were asked: In the business sectors with which you are most familiar, please indicate how likely companies from the following countries are to pay or offer bribes to win or retain business in this country?
A perfect score, indicating zero perceived propensity to pay bribes, is 10.0, and thus the ranking below starts with companies from countries that are seen to have a low propensity for foreign bribe paying. All the survey data indicated that domestically owned companies in the 15 countries surveyed have a very high propensity to pay bribes - higher than that of foreign firms.
| Rank | Country | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 8.5 |
| 2 | Sweden | 8.4 |
| Switzerland | 8.4 | |
| 4 | Austria | 8.2 |
| 5 | Canada | 8.1 |
| 6 | Netherlands | 7.8 |
| Belgium | 7.8 | |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 6.9 |
| 9 | Singapore | 6.3 |
| Germany | 6.3 | |
| 11 | Spain | 5.8 |
| 12 | France | 5.5 |
| 13 | USA | 5.3 |
| Japan | 5.3 | |
| 15 | Malaysia | 4.3 |
| Hong Kong | 4.3 | |
| 17 | Italy | 4.1 |
| 18 | South Korea | 3.9 |
| 19 | Taiwan | 3.8 |
| 20 | People's Republic of China | 3.5 |
| 21 | Russia | 3.2 |
| Domestic Companies | 1.9 |
"The BPI results signal the rejection by multinational firms of the spirit of international anti-bribery conventions, while their actions lead to a huge misallocation of very scarce resources in developing countries," said TI Advisory Council Chairman Kamal Hossain at a press conference in Hong Kong. "The data also points to very heavy bribe-paying by domestic firms in developing countries. Today's BPI underscores the fact that we have a global problem of corporate bribe-paying that demands concerted global actions by official international organisations, civil society organisations and national governments," he said.