The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The foreign corrupt practices act (FCPA) is as an anti-bribery regulation. The act is prohibiting direct and indirect valuables (monetary or physical) offering to foreign officials to influence their decisions in favor of the giver. The act has consist of two parts to control the international corruption, the first would be an anti-bribery provision and the second is books and records internal controls that enforce a good accounting provisions (Darrough, 2010). International corruption prevention is difficult and a single act like FCPA would only result in limited success if not fully embraced by the international organizations and the countries these organizations work in. the bookkeeping, disclosure and maintenance of internal controls systems are effective measures to prevent unlawful acts by the multinational organizations according to Darrough (2010), but the so-called “facilitating payments” are allowed by the act and these payments can be considered as another form of bribery. U. S. Companies would be would be disadvantaged by this act if they chose to implement it without any deviations. Bribes and “facilitating payments” were common before the act and were practiced by the U. S. companies and other international companies. The U. S. Companies should act ethically (before acting legally) and withhold these payments, but foreign officials would most probably be influenced by the bribes they received from non U. S. companies (or U. S. companies that chose to pay facilitating payments).

Darrough, M. (2010). The FCPA and the OECD convention: Some lessons from the U.S. experience. [Article]. Journal of Business Ethics, 93(2), 255-276. doi: 10.1007/s10551-009-0219-5