TheOAS and the OECD Move against Transnational Bribery: Implications for U.S. Businesses and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/0045-3609.00041
• Date: 01 March 1999
• Published date: 01 March 1999
• Author: Franklyn P. Salimbene

The OAS and the OECD Move

against Transnational Bribery:

Implications for U.S.

Businesses and the Foreign

Corrupt Practices Act

FRANKLYN P. SALIMBENE

The payment of bribes to foreign public officials in order to

obtain or retain business has been an issue of continuing

concern to the United States government and U.S. busi-

nesses. With the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in

1977 (hereinafter FCPA),1which made it a crime for U.S. businesses

to engage in such activities, the United States began a solitary

struggle to enlist the support of other nations in the battle against

transnational bribery.2Yet, not until recently did these efforts begin

to achieve any demonstrable success. That success came with the

signing of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption in

1996, and the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public

Officials in International Business Transactions in 1997.

These treaties, which require signatory states to enact criminal

sanctions against those engaged in bribing foreign public officials,

will place the same legal restrictions on foreign businesses that

the FCPA has placed on U.S. businesses. They also will promote

fair and open competition in the awarding of international con-

tracts, competition not distorted by cronyism and corruption.

Because of this linkage between the treaties and the FCPA, and

because of their significance for U.S. businesses, this paper will:

(1) provide a brief review of the FCPA; (2) outline the significant

© 1999 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College. Published by Blackwell Publishers,

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK.

Franklyn P. Salimbene is an adjunct assistant professor of law and a research fellow at the Center

for Business Ethics, Bentley College, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Business and Society Review 104:1 91–105