3% of Foreign Firms Bribed Staffers of Local Firms
Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Foreign firms are more inclined to seek bribery as a means to win contracts with Korea's public enterprises than domestic firms, a survey by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) shows.
The survey of 490 officials of foreign and Korean firms, released Wednesday, said 2.7 percent of foreign firms offered bribes once or more to officials of Korean public firms to win contracts, a rate three times higher than that of Korean firms.
There are two reasons for the greater number of bribery cases involving foreign firms than Korean firms.
Foreigners tend to regard bribery as an easier way to win contracts from Korean public firms because they think the level of integrity at the firms is low, according to the commission.
More importantly, public firm officials tend to violate ethics codes more easily when they deal with foreign firms due to lax monitoring here on corruption involving foreign companies, it said.
The commission began the survey after employees of state-run Korea Hydro Nuclear Power (KHNP) were found in February to have received kickbacks from a California-based vendor.
The inquiry showed around 200 KHNP employees were ``directly or indirectly'' involved in the purchasing of valves for its power plants between 2003 to 2007 from the U.S. firm. It also paid bribes to China's Jiangu Nuclear Power Corp., the China National Offshore Oil Company, Petro China, Romania's Rovinari Power and Saudi Arabia's Safco.
According to the ACRC survey, 23.1 percent of those who bribed Korean officials said the bribery actually worked in winning contracts, while 30.8 percent said it failed.
Up to 15.9 percent of foreign respondents said they thought offering presents and wining and dining are the most notable examples of unfair business practices in Korea, followed by corruptive ties between businesses and politicians at 10.4 percent, regional favoritism at 10.4 percent and lack of transparency in auditing at 3.9 percent.