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The construction and arms industries are seen as the business sectors with the greatest propensity to pay bribes to developing country officials, 
BRIBERY: Builders, Arms Makers Called Leading Offenders
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The anti-corruption group based its findings on interviews with more than 770 business executives, lawyers, accountants, bankers and chamber of commerce officials in 14 leading "emerging market" countries. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 indicating great willingness to pay bribes and 10 indicating great reluctance, the public works and construction sector scored 1.5, the arms and defense industry scored 2.0, and the energy and power business scored 3.5.
General industry, health care and social work, postal and telecommunications equipment and services, civilian aerospace, banking and finance, and agriculture scored between 4.2 and 6.0.
"This is our first business sector survey and the results indicate great willingness by many international firms to bribe senior government officials around the world," Transparency International Chair Peter Eigen said.
Manufacturing, mining and health care companies seem less willing to pay bribes than construction and defense firms, but "they too are seen as widely using bribes in their foreign business dealings," he said.
Few of the business executives questioned were aware of the international Anti-Bribery Convention promoted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and even fewer indicated plans to comply with the new rules.
The main cause of government corruption is low salaries, the report said, followed by immunity from prosecution. Eigen called for international support for civil service reforms, including raising salaries.
"When we look at the reasons that senior officials are seen to take bribes and at the propensity of international firms to use bribes, then we have to reflect on some basic realities -- although it is mostly the rich who are the most corrupt in international grand corruption, the taking of bribes is often driven by greed, not by need," Eigen said (Transparency International release, 20 Jan).
Frank Vogl, the organization's vice chairman, said he had no information on which specific companies were the worst offenders, and the group did not try to establish the amounts involved, according to Inter Press Service.
No country's firms earned a perfect 10, and US firms ranked 6.2, a little better than firms from Singapore, which scored 5.7. At the same time, Vogl said, the United States is seen as doing more than others, a finding he described as "very conspicuous and very interesting."
Vogl noted that the findings were largely based on interviews with executives, many of whom were commenting on their competition. "There are a lot of sour grapes among those who lose," he said (Abid Aslam, Inter Press Service/TerraViva, 21 Jan 2000).