Inside Opinion: Corruption and the Cultural Divide

Anyone who has worked in a large western corporation knows the lengths these companies go to, to avoid being involved in dodgy business practices. The anti-corruption legislation and rules are myriad and stringent, and we all know the glare of publicity when western companies get caught out.

Whilst these are angled unashamedly towards financial transactions and the financials companies that handle them, the rules are applied equally to companies in shipping and bunkering and it is this sector I'd like to talk about.

Corruption, graft, bribery, etc whatever you want to call it in whatever form you prefer to think of it, is not a major issue in north and western Europe. Granted there are a couple of Mediterranean countries where this does not apply in some aspects and areas, but generally, as rule, western Europe and the US and Canada are the ones usually applying the rules not having the rules applied against them.

There are exceptions we can all name of course!

But in other parts of the world it can be a fact of business life, so the actual question is not whether corruption is an issue, but where the line is between "cultural" and "corrupt".

Gifts

I've heard stories of business meetings in the distant past where it was expected that the customer and host exchange small token gifts. I've been to all-expenses paid bars as a customer to be entertained. Do those instances count as one or the other?

I've also been briefed whilst working for previous employers that should anything like that happen or even be mentioned, that I should walk out of the meeting. I know of some companies that won't even let you accept a drink!

A well-known high street bank in the UK and worldwide is fond of extolling the virtues of a little local knowledge, and they are right of course. If you want to do the business you need to know what you are doing and knowing how to get the deal done without breaking any rules is just savvy business smart. Local customs, ways of expressing things, even just plain local foibles of regional etiquette can all help you do the business. It can give you an edge.

There is a line of course.

Knowing where that line is is not as easy as it seems hypothetically from my nice comfortable UK office with the rules in black and white in front of you. One is tempted to imagine that, at 3am after more than a few beers, jetlag and a yearning for a few hours' sleep in a warm and quiet hotel bed, the line may less distinct still. Where does "cultural" end and "corrupt" begin?

The Do's and Don'ts

So on the one hand you have the European and US anti-corruption rules starkly and darkly advising and threatening about the very many do's and don'ts. On the other you have shipping, surely the most global of global businesses, and its businessmen and women doing deals big and small in any and every country you could imagine, with all the catalogue of do's and don'ts, culturally speaking.

I'd suggest the line is 100% clear only to compliance officers who are not let out to see customers for a very good reason!

Joking aside, we know the line well enough. It is whatever the rules say, above all you keep it legal and above-board. You try to wing the rest and do your very best to get the deal done without upsetting anyone or causing offence, right? Right.

But then some will always take it more seriously than others. I do wonder how the major, super regulated and super-scrutinised US and European megacompanies manage to get any business done at all in some of the countries where corruption cannot be avoided.

It is interesting to note though the lengths some developing countries have gone to to try to attract more western pounds, Euros and Dollars by being seen to be being tough on corruption. I am of the personal opinion the recent (incredibly harsh by western standards) death sentences for the Vinalines execs found guilty of exactly this fall under this category. 

Singapore has been on a recent very well-publicised crackdown on bunker fraud of late, very extensively documented on this site. Shipping has been keen to show it is keeping pace with the recent trend to pick out corruption in business practice as an en vogue topic, and this is obviously to be welcomed.

This global business is a less corrupt sector as a result but one wonders whether some are talking the talk more than walking the walk.