商业贿赂得不偿失

    当然，也有可能是因为更多的案件没有被媒体曝光。但随着美国当局开始加大惩处企业贿赂行为，公众已听到了越来越多的案件。正如《财富》杂志（Fortune）史蒂芬•甘代尔本周早些时候指出，联邦官员正在调查更多贿赂案件，因为2002年《萨班斯-奥克斯利法案》（Sarbanes Oxley Act）要求首席执行官和首席财务官保证公司递交的财务文件必须正确无误，其中也包括报告贿赂行为。

    结果我们发现，贿赂和回扣在墨西哥、中国和俄罗斯更盛行，至少从透明国际（Transparency International）2011年的行贿者指数（Bribe Payers Index）来看是这样。行贿指数根据企业海外行贿倾向的高低对全球主要经济体进行排名，分数越高表明行贿可能性越低。荷兰和瑞士的得分都是8.8，在28个经济体中并列第一。美国紧随其后，为8.1。墨西哥（7.0）、中国（6.5）和俄罗斯（6.1）垫底。

    人们或许很容易得出结论，认为在腐败国家做生意就得靠行贿。但最终，行贿总是让公司得不偿失。

    译者：早稻米

    It's likely that there are many more cases that have gone unreported. However, it could also be that the public has started to hear of more cases as U.S. authorities become more aggressive about punishing corporate payoffs. As Fortune's Stephen Gandel pointed out earlier this week, federal officials are pursuing more bribery cases thanks to the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 that effectively requires CEOs and CFOs to certify their companies' financial filings are correct. And that includes reporting bribes.

    As it turns out, the culture of bribery and kickbacks is more prevalent in Mexico, China and Russia, at least according to Transparency International's 2011 Bribe Payers Index, which ranks the world's major economies by the tendency of their companies to offer bribes abroad. A high score reflected a low likelihood of bribery. The Netherlands and Switzerland both scored 8.8, the highest of 28 economies. The U.S. came close scoring 8.1. Mexico (7.0), China (6.5) and Russia (6.1) scored the lowest.

    It might be easy to assume that bribery is just the way business is done in corrupt states, but at the end of the day, it almost always ends up costing companies more than they realize.