1. The mission of a global group called Transparency International is to stop corruption and promote transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society. The organization's "Core Values" are: transparency, accountability, integrity, solidarity, courage, justice and democracy. Each year the organization evaluates business corruption in each country and produces a Corruptions Perception Index (CPI), The 2012 CPI ranks Nigeria 139 of 174 nations. Exhibit 1 provides a complete set of rankings.
Writing for Transparency International Chinyere Nwafor states that “One of the reasons why there are so many foreign bribery cases going on related to Nigeria is basically that corruption in Nigeria is deeply entrenched in almost every area of the public sector.” In Nigeria, facilitating payments called “dash” are a way of life and necessity to get things done.
Given the apparent corrupt culture in Nigeria, why shouldn’t U.S. businesses just consider payoffs to Nigerian officials as a cost of doing business in that country and not a payment in violation of the FCPA?
2. Comment on the following statement from a values perspective: “Ethics Must be Global, Not Local.”
3 .Use ethical reasoning to respond to the following statement by a U.S. executive:
Bribery is bad for business. Bribery is inefficient; it’s wasteful. It often doesn’t accomplish what its original purpose was. You may be competing with another company that may ultimately out-bribe you. And then at the end of the day, of course, there is a huge risk that the bribery is uncovered, that you are the subject of a protracted investigation. And the costs can be quite, quite high at the end of the day.