1. Think and answer:

1. What kinds of bribes are offered in the business world?

2. Can such payments be classified in some other way?

3. Do you think bribery can be eliminated? If so, how can it be done?

4. What are the most common grounds for bribery?

5. Why do people use special words or jargon to speak about bribes?

6. What Russian expressions do you know to talk about bribes?

7. Do you know any examples of bribery? Discuss them with your group.

8. Why do lecturers include the topic of bribery in business in their syllabuses of study?

9. In what way do lecturers illustrate their point about inevitability of bribes?

10. What argument might someone in the British motor car industry use to justify the giving of bribes?

11. Why was the US company ITT criticized for making a large financial contribution to a political campaign?

12. What finally persuaded the Minister of Works of the Carribean country to award the contract to the sales manager?

13. Explain briefly the difference of opinion existing within then International Chambers of Commerce about how the organization should deal with bribery.

2. Choose the most appropriate interpretation:

1. Those who are tempted to bend their principles:

a) generally are people without any principles;

b) usually change their principles according to circumstances;

c) rather unwillingly make some kind of compromise.

2. If you are in a wheeling-dealing business, you should expect:

a) to be involved in deals worth millions of pounds;

b) to have frequent and extensible disputes with dealers;

c) to work fast under pressure to get results.

3. Speeding up the wheels of bureaucracy will probably:

a) reduce administrative delays for a company;

b) involve many contacts with official machinery;

c) mean greater interference by government officials.

4. When a tender is put on a selective contract list:

a) a company gains an advantage over some of its competitors;

b) no other company is allowed to bid for the contract;

c) a company is almost certain to be awarded the contract.

5. Industry is caught in a web of bribery. This statement implies that:

a) bribery is widespread and difficult for a businessman to avoid;

b) almost everyone in industry is engaged in taking bribes;

c) anyone entering industry will almost certainly be corrupted.

3. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word from the box:

a) temptation e) breaking i) deal

b) enforced f) cleared j) commissions

c) widespread / common g) practice

d) secured h) control / reduce

In many countries, it is common to pay someone to ease the passage of a business (1) ______. For a company (2) ________into these markets for the first time, the (3) ______to use bribery is very great indeed. In many cases, the company will have to pay inflated (4) ______to an agent or make other such payments if an order is to be (5) ______. Later, there will be the routine handout to make sure the consignment of goods is (6) ______ through customs. Although an international business community like the ICC can give guidelines to companies, it cannot (7)______bribery by its own efforts. It is up to governments in those countries where bribery is (8) ______to help stamp out this (9) ______by brining in laws against corruption and making sure these are (10) ________.