Indian and Chinese companies are the most likely to pay bribes when operating in Africa. These are the findings of the 2008 Bribe Payers Index of Transparency International, a global corruption watchdog. Worldwide, companies from China and India also score among the top four in all three categories of bribery assessed.

These include bribery of high-ranking politicians or political parties, bribery of low-level public officials to speed up things, and the use of personal relationships to win public contracts.

The Berlin-based organisation interviewed 2,742 senior executives from companies in 26 developed and developing countries, picked for their volumes of imports and direct foreign investments. The sectors found the most affected by bribery were construction, public works contracts, real estate and property development, oil and gas, and mining.

In these sectors, according to Transparency International, two types of bribery exist: the direct bribery of public officials to obtain contracts, and ‘state capture’, meaning efforts by firms to shape and influence the underlying rules of the game.

The banking and finance sectors were seen to perform considerably worse in terms of state capture than bribery of public officials.

“Africa’s development efforts are being hampered by exporting companies from the developed and emerging markets which continue to bribe their way into winning contracts”, says the Transparency International report.

“Foreign companies that commit the crime of bribery are undercutting Africa’s anti-poverty efforts,” states its regional director for Africa, Casey Kelso.

“African countries should prosecute them vigorously. Regional development institutions, such as the African Development Bank, can help by enforcing debarment programmes that block crooked companies from profiting from development dollars while the poor are left out of the picture.”

Not accountable
One of the reasons Asian companies are more likely to pay bribes abroad is the fact that they cannot be held accountable at home.

China and India do not have laws that govern bribery of officials abroad. While China has strengthened its legislation on corruption involving its own officials, it has no laws that prohibit foreign bribery.

Legislation in India is even weaker. There is no definition of foreign bribery in India and there are no provisions on foreign bribery in its Prevention of Corruption Act.

“Even if foreign bribery were a criminal offence, obstacles would exist including jurisdictional limitations and lack of liability for corporates,” according to the Transparency International report.

“Furthermore, gifts, travel expenses, facilitating payments and grease payments are not considered an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.”

India has also refused to cooperate with other governments on investigating corruption cases. “There are foreign bribery cases in which the Indian government has not responded in a satisfactory way to requests for mutual legal assistance from other states,” the report says.

Anti-Bribery Convention
Moreover, China and India have refused to adopt the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

The convention, which came into force in 1999, establishes legally binding standards to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions.

The treaty has been adopted by the 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and eight non-member countries – Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Estonia, Israel, the Slovenia and South Africa.

“The progress (by the convention) will be undermined as long as major players such as China, India and Russia remain outside the framework,” says Transparency International.

The convention was established out of a genuine concern among governments of rich countries that bribery was a widespread phenomenon in international business transactions, including trade and investment.

Apart from the serious moral and political implications, the governments realised that the practice undermined good governance and economic development in developing countries and distorted international competitive conditions.

The 38 member states have vowed to make it a criminal offence under its law for any of its nationals or companies to offer or promise “undue pecuniary or other advantage, whether directly or through intermediaries, to a foreign public official in order to obtain or retain business or other improper advantage in the conduct of international business.”

They also agreed to make complicity in an act of bribery, including incitement, aiding or authorisation, a criminal offence.

“The bribery of a foreign public official shall be punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties.

The range of penalties shall include deprivation of liberty sufficient to enable effective mutual legal assistance and extradition,” reads the convention.

Penalties may include monetary sanctions as well as seizure of the bribe, the proceeds of the bribery or confiscating property amounting to the value of the proceeds.

The countries further promised that investigation and prosecution of bribery cases will not be influenced by “considerations of national economic interest, the potential effect upon relations with another state or the identity of the people involved”.

In order to combat bribery of foreign public officials effectively, they resolved to also punish companies which do not keep books and records according to auditing standards, or which falsify data.

This, the convention said, is to prohibit off-the-books accounts, inadequately identified transactions, non-existent expenditures, as well as the use of false documents by companies for the purpose of bribing foreign public officials or hiding bribery.

The member states promised to give each other prompt and effective legal assistance, as well as provide any information or documents needed for the purpose of criminal investigations and proceedings.

“A party shall not decline to render mutual legal assistance for criminal matters on the ground of bank secrecy,” the convention reads.

Unfair competition
The 38 member states meet every year to discuss progress reports on cases reported and investigated, as well as monitor the full implementation of the convention.

In the last decade, the convention has resulted in more than 350 investigations. Over 60 individuals and companies have been sanctioned for committing foreign bribery.

And although Indian and Chinese companies have been named in many overseas corruption scandals, there have been no cases brought in either country for foreign bribery.

The Volcker report on the UN Oil-For-Food Programme in Iraq, for example, implicated over 120 Indian companies.

The fact that firms from rich countries are bound by rules which do not apply to companies from emerging economies, operating in the same environment, provides for unfair competition and disadvantages those who want to conduct clean business.

Transparency International, therefore, urges China and India to sign the Anti-Bribery Convention expeditiously, warning that the treaty might collapse if the present unjust conditions persist.

“Major free riders outside the system are a strong disincentive for OECD-based companies and OECD countries to play by the rules. If the system breaks down, everyone will lose.”

Course Objectives and Outline

Online journalism is booming worldwide – also in Vietnam. Media houses seek to set up web editions or to merge their print newsrooms with online. The changes require well-trained multimedia journalists who know how to write for the web, how to produce and publish podcasts, slideshows or videos, and how to tell a multimedia story.

This training course of the IIJ aims at strengthening the professional and ethical standards of multimedia journalists. It seeks to assist media houses in Vietnam which started or are about to start online editions of their newspapers. The two-week course is an answer to the increasing demand for well-trained online journalists in the country who understand the technical features and the journalistic opportunities of the digital media.

Course contents

– Basics of internet techniques: browsers, Web 2.0 and search engines.

– Analysing news websites: design, usability, interactivity.

– Improving strategies for online research.

– Photo editing with Photoshop and producing slideshows.

– Podcasting: Producing and publishing audio files.

– Blogging and mobile reporting.

The course will be conducted in English.

Admission Requirements

The programme is open to journalists who work for online editions or who are to take up such work in the near future.

They should (i) have a minimum of five years of professional experience; (ii) have a strong interest in new media in general and online journalism in particular; (iii) have good computer skills; (iv) be proficient in English.

Women journalists are particularly encouraged to apply.

Johanes Heru Margianto participated in an IIJ training course on Multimedia and Online Journalism that took place in February and March 2009 in Berlin. During this time he took the picture showing class mates practising video journalism and posting videos on a news website.

The nine-week training course is an answer to the increasing demand for well-trained online journalists who understand the technical features and the journalistic opportunities of this digital medium. The course deals with following topics: 1) Analysing media websites: design, usability, interactivity 2) Basics of Internet technology 3) Writing for the web 4) Photo editing with Photoshop 5) Podcasting: producing audio files 6) Strategies for efficient online research 7) Calculating the costs of setting up and running an online publication Discussing the politics of the Internet and its potential for social and economic development 9) Raising awareness of Internet security and e-rights.

The overall objective of the course is to contribute to timely and quality reporting on the budget. This is envisaged to strengthen transparency and effective communication in budget management and, ultimately increase participatory and informed decision-making,

After completion of the course, participants will have:
– Enhanced their understanding of the concept, principles and best practices of public financial management including formulation and execution of the budget and the role of the different actors involved;
– Practically applied and shared experience and knowledge by working on a case study and established contacts with stakeholders and civil society organisations;
– Improved their skills in researching and writing comprehensible articles on the budget, its implementation and the related effects.
The course is open above all to journalists from Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya who work for print and online media and have a special interest in economic and budget reporting.
Applicants should
– have a minimum of 4 years of professional experience in economic and/or political reporting
– be not older than 35 years
– be proficient in English.
Women journalists are particularly encouraged to apply.

Kindly address any inquiries to:
International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) of InWEnt
Mr. Hans-Jürgen Bösel, senior project manager
Ms. Ute Graalmann, project manager
Stresemannstr. 92
10963 Berlin, Germany
Phone +49-30-43 996-337/ 296
Fax +49-30-43 996-260
hans.boesel@inwent.org
ute.graalmann@inwent.org
www.inwent.org/iij

The journalists surveyed said that journalism training had improved their coverage but the report concluded that there are other challenges in the African media landscape which are not addressed by training. These include low salaries, lack of resources, pressure from government and advertisers and the lack of freedom of information laws. The report includes recommendations for organizations planning journalism training activities in countries with extractive sectors.

The impact of the training courses on financial and economic reporting offered by InWEnt’s International Institute for Journalism (IIJ) was studied alongside with training programmes of the Thomson Foundation, BBC World Service Trust, Cardiff University School of Journalism and the India Institute of Mass Communication’s Development Journalism Programme.

As mentioned in the summery of the report, the journalists interviewed highly praised the format and teaching methods of the IIJ programme. They emphasized the value of having experienced practitioners teach at the trainings and the networking opportunities that the trainings provided, allowing participants to connect with journalists and policymakers from around the world. “The IIJ seeks out the strongest journalists at the trainings and mentors them, which significantly sets it apart from other training organizations, and has made him a top business journalist”, said one journalist.

The study can be downloaded at http://www.journalismtraining.net/