Summary
The scandal at FIFA is just the latest story of corporate corruption to dominate the news. What steps can businesses take to avoid getting caught up in corruption, particularly in countries and sectors where bribery is the norm? What is legitimate business conduct and what crosses the line into illegality? Evan Davis and his guests discuss:
Emma Sharma, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for the Supreme Group Hugh Miles of The Al Shafie Miles Consultancy Leo Martin of Good Corporation
Producer: Jim Frank.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Evan Davis and thank you for downloading this program. |
| 0:03.0 | In this edition of the bottom line, we're looking at corruption |
| 0:07.0 | and how businesses can avoid getting caught up in it. |
| 0:10.0 | Now, you arrive at some foreign airport in a poor country and a smart suit on a business trip. |
| 0:15.0 | There's a huge queue at the passport desk, barely even a queue, actually. It's a crush. |
| 0:19.0 | And then a smartly dressed man comes up to you and says, follow me, we can go to the express queue over there even a queue, actually. It's a crush. And then a smartly dressed man |
| 0:20.8 | comes up to you and says, follow me, we can go to the express queue over there, $10. Do you, A, go, |
| 0:27.3 | B, politely decline, or see, report him to the FBI as someone seeking a bribe? This is our |
| 0:34.6 | subject today, corruption. We know it's a sporting issue, but it is also a business one. |
| 0:39.8 | For example, one of Britain's biggest global companies, Glaxo Smith-Kline, was fined half a billion dollars last year by the Chinese government for bribing doctors and hospitals there to give preference to its products. |
| 0:52.1 | Well, I'm particularly keen for us in the next half hour to get into |
| 0:56.0 | some of the greyer areas. Many people think it's black and white. Often it is, but sometimes it's not. |
| 1:01.7 | My guests are all experts in the field, so let's meet them. And first of all, it's Emma Sharma. |
| 1:07.2 | She's the chief ethics and compliance officer at a group called Supreme Group. She's based in Washington, D.C., but it's with us here. Just tell us |
| 1:15.0 | a little about the company, Emma. We specialize in logistics in |
| 1:19.2 | difficult to reach locations and usually former war-torn countries. One of |
| 1:24.1 | our biggest contracts recently was in Afghanistan and we're |
| 1:26.9 | currently in Liberia and |
| 1:29.8 | Ivory Coast, Somalia, those kind of countries. Right. And the Ministry of Defense here is a client |
| 1:35.2 | and the US military is a client. So you were feeding actually thousands of US troops basically, |
| 1:40.8 | were you? Yes, US and UK troops. Right, yeah. Your personal background is legal. |
| 1:45.8 | It started off in the legal field, yes, and then it gradually evolved increasingly into the |
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