A website on which whistleblowers can expose the countries and government ministries that offer bribes to companies trying to do business overseas was launched in Washington yesterday.
BRIBEline, an initiative promoted by the World Bank and Wal-Mart, is the first anticorruption tool to focus solely on the demand side of bribery. It is a secure, multilingual website on which company employees can anonymously report any bribe demands that they receive. No names, either of the employee or the bribe offerer, are used, and the device is not a law enforcement tool that will trigger prosecutions.
It will, however, map out which are the world’s worst offenders and from which international organisations, police departments or government ministries most bribes originate from.
All the bribe reports, from the most subtle, such as regular and lavish lunches, to the most brazen offers of cash, are collated to produce a “bribe landscape”. “It will help to shine a light on where the trouble spots are in which countries,” said Michelle Gavin, a board member of Trace International, an antibribery organisation that launched the website. “It is a really valuable risk investigation tool for the private sector.”
Until now most international laws have cracked down on companies that pay bribes, but not on the corrupt government officials or customs officers who demand them.
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The information gathered through BRIBEline will be aggregated and publicly reported by country and by ministry or sector.
Suzanne Rich Folsom, Director of the World Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity, hoped that the device would put pressure on governments to root out corruption in sectors highlighted by the bribery reports.