FCPAméricas Blog
More Latin American Data for your FCPA Compliance Program: Gauging levels of petty corruption
5.22.2013
Companies operating in Latin America with robust anti-corruption compliance programs regularly welcome new data to help them better understand the landscapes in which they operate. Risk assessments are a fundamental component of FCPA compliance, as discussed by enforcement agencies in the FCPA Guidance and Attachment Cs to Deferred Prosecution Agreements. Quantitative measures help bolster the accuracy of such assessments. The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and the 2012 Latin American Corruption Survey are two such sources available to companies for Latin America. FCPAméricas has discussed other empirics here.
Now there is yet another source, the 2012 Americas Barometer Study, conducted by the Latin American Public Opinion Project. The project involved the support of USAID, Vanderbilt University, the University of Miami, and others.
Three things make this survey unique. First, the expansiveness of the survey makes the validity of its results hard to question. The project polled over 40,000 people in 26 countries throughout the region. Each country involved a minimum of 1,500 polling interviews. Project organizers trained a small army of individuals from local organizations, universities, and research institutions to carry hand-held computers to all corners of the region, rural and urban, populated and remote, to ask a series of questions of all sorts of citizens. Surveys were conducted in numerous languages, including indigenous languages.
Second, this survey asks about people’s experiences with corruption. Usually, surveys ask only for people’s perceptions of corruption. Rather that capturing views on corruption, this survey appears to capture actual victimization.
Third, the data is highly relevant specifically to gauging petty corruption risks. Many of the questions are designed to measure corruption victimization by police officers, municipal permitting officials, hospitals and clinics, school officials, and others. These are the types of everyday bribe requests that affect the average citizen in Latin America. They are not necessarily of direct relevance to the types of grand corruption that can touch elite business activity, like large-scale public procurement processes, dealings with customs officials, or interactions with executive branch officials. Those types of activities generally involve only a small segment of a population. Nonetheless, the responses are quite relevant to companies insofar as petty corruption affects operations on the ground. The corrupt police officer who demands bribes from company employees on highways. The low level bureaucrat who asks for payments to connect the company’s telephone line.
Overall, an eye-opening 57% of respondents throughout the entire region say they have experienced one instance of low-level corruption in the last year. Forty-three percent (43%) are repeat victims. Those with more wealth, better education, and more urban presence are more likely to be victimized. Bribe requests are also more common for self-employed business owners rather than private sector employees.
Percentage of respondents who report being asked for a bribe one or more times in the last twelve months by a police officer, government employee, municipal government, at work, in the courts, at a hospital or clinic, and/or at school (tiered risk categories prepared by FCPAméricas):
Tier One Risk
Haiti (67.0%)
Bolivia (44.8%)
Ecuador (40.9%)
Tier Two Risk
Mexico (31.2%)
Peru (28.5%)
Honduras (25.8%)
Guatemala (24.1%)
Dominican Republic (21.7%)
Paraguay (21.0%)
Costa Rica (20.7%)
Argentina (19.6%)
Guyana (19.4%)
Tier Three Risk
Colombia (16.1%)
Venezuela (15.3%)
Trinidad & Tobago (14.8%)
Tier Four Risk
Suriname (11.9%)
Belize (11.9%)
Brazil (11.5%)
Nicaragua (11.4%)
El Salvador (11.3%)
Tier Five Risk
Panama (9.0%)
Uruguay (8.2%)
Jamaica (7.5%)
Chile (5.8%)
United States (5.3%)
Canada (3.4%)
Raw data from the survey is available on the project’s website, but the project has not yet published all of its analysis. The survey organizers are careful to note that the extensive data can allow for review of specific risk variations at sub-national levels. Such information could be extremely useful in helping companies enhance their compliance efforts in specific parts of the region. One of the survey partners, Dr. Ariel Armony, the Director of the University of Miami’s Center for Latin American Studies, has offered to assist companies that might wish to use the data for private sector compliance. Mr. Armony can be reached at: armony@miami.edu.
The FCPAméricas blog is not intended to provide legal advice to its readers. The blog entries and posts include only the thoughts, ideas, and impressions of its authors and contributors, and should be considered general information only about the Americas, anti-corruption laws including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, issues related to anti-corruption compliance, and any other matters addressed. Nothing in this publication should be interpreted to constitute legal advice or services of any kind. Furthermore, information found on this blog should not be used as the basis for decisions or actions that may affect your business; instead, companies and businesspeople should seek legal counsel from qualified lawyers regarding anti-corruption laws or any other legal issue. The Editor and the contributors to this blog shall not be responsible for any losses incurred by a reader or a company as a result of information provided in this publication. For more information, please contact Info@MattesonEllisLaw.com.
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@2013 Matteson Ellis Law, PLLC
Post authored by Matteson Ellis, FCPAméricas Founder & Editor
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