If big companies bribe, how about us?

I read this from a blog (though there maybe other avenue for you to know this before me) and I rarely want to repeat what other blog has said or link my readers to it but this is something which I like to comment as it seems that a few of Malaysian politicians theory about bribery being a local or Asian phenomena has just being blown to bits. It seems that bribe is a daily occurrence everywhere. And they are not just done by small contractors or small businessmen trying to get the bigger piece of the pie. It is a fact of life and when the news show a corporation as big as Siemens, a company from German, well known and seems to have its finger in a lot of pies around the world. Read that story here from a blog dedicated to economy, run by a local economist. The thing that caught my eyes was the title of the post "How to do bribery by Siemens".

Get this, there are five countries; Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia which are listed as Transparency International to be where corporate bribery is most common. I bet when you see that list you will be saying to yourself, there is no surprise there. But, get this, Siemens paid most in countries like China, Russia, Argentina, Israel and Venezuela. The best way to bribe? Outside consultants to help secure a contract. And these bribes were tax deductible before 1999 in Germany.

I think you can read the article yourself and chuckle yourself silly as you will be surprise at who Siemens asked to be the conduit in dispensing the bribe. What I would like to know, who never head of Siemens? I bet no one ever not heard of them. Their products are everywhere. They even have products in the medical industry nowadays. I bet they have at least one equipment in any one of the hospital in the world. If a company as big and as recognisable as that needed to bribe to get government contracts around the world, what about those small companies which has just been established needing to find their footing and making it in the world. Sometimes I think, the word government itself is enough to be a dirty word.