CORRUPTION

Interview with Jessica Tillipman
International Affairs Forum
countries, transparency is nonexistent, so the
average citizen, media, and civil society don’t
have access to information.
The lack of political accountability in many of
these countries speaks to the impunity issue of
civil servants but also to a lack of accountability
with political actors. If they’re going to stay
in power because voting is ineffective, it
perpetuates the cycle of corruption.
These are a few of the biggest factors that drive
corruption in developing countries. Again, it
varies from country to country depending on
what the particular issues are in that country.
Do you view anti-corruption efforts being
more effective through more of a bottom up
or top down approach?
Again, it depends on the country. A bottom
up approach is important because you want
something coming from the citizenry, but if there
is a nonresponsive government, that’s a big
constraint. I’m fairly confident that most citizens
of Russia would not want to live in a country with
corruption issues, but they can do very little. The
same goes for China.
One of the interesting things about the Panama
Papers is that there was an immediate reaction
in countries with a free media. Then there is
China, who censors the media. As a result,
there was no reaction from Chinese officials or
citizens. It is the same in Russia where Putin just
dismissed the Panama Papers. You can have
some action from citizens but the government
must provide access to information and show
support.
If it is just a top-down approach without
engagement from the citizens of a country, that is
difficult, too. The government must obtain buy-in
from all of the stakeholders: the government, civil
society, media, and citizens.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977
(FCPA) was enacted “for the purpose of
making it unlawful for certain classes of
persons and entities to make payments to
foreign government officials to assist in
obtaining or retaining business.” Would
you describe its elements (including
amendments)? How effective has it been to
date?
The FCPA has been around since the late ‘70s.
It stems from the Watergate investigations
when the government discovered that some
oil companies and government contractors
were bribing foreign government officials. The
FCPA was the government’s response to this
discovery—it did not want our largest multinational
corporations to travel around the world,
bribing foreign government officials.
The FCPA has two sections. The first prohibits
the bribery of foreign government officials. It
only prohibits the paying of bribes to foreign
government officials; it does not prohibit the
receipt of bribes. As you can imagine, if US
prosecutors routinely attempted to prosecute
foreign officials, it could have severe political and
diplomatic implications.
The second section of the FCPA is the books
and records/internal control provisions.
Congress crafted these provisions because
they not only wanted to prohibit the bribery of
foreign government officials, but also wanted
to ensure that companies could not hide bribes
in off-the-book accounts and slush funds by
disguising or concealing them in their accounting
books and records. Congress also wanted to
ensure that companies had controls in place to
prevent bribery, as well as measures in place to
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