Manual for Azerbaijan companies Rena Safaralieva
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Estimates of the level of corruption in Azerbaijan
2. In the course of a business discussion, you have had a misunderstanding and the other party seems alienated. What do you do?
(a) Terminate negotiations? (b)
(c)
Try to find new and more solid argumentation to persuade the other party? (d)
Invite a third party to intervene, for example, your lawyer or investor? (e)
Anything else? 3. You talk to an importunate person at a buffet diner. His or her loose monologue is real torture for you, but etiquette forces you to make yourself to look happy. Which way out of this “captivity” would you prefer:
(a)
Continue to listen in hope that the end will come soon? (b)
(c)
Apologize and get away under a pretext of fetching one more sandwich? (d)
Tell the person straightforward what you think of him or her? (e)
Anything else? 4. During a business trip to a European country, Tural was invited to a business breakfast and served some pork. His region prohibits him to touch pork. Which of the below given options would be appropriate from the point of view of etiquette?
(а) Politely refuse with reference to Islamic prohibition? (b) Politely refuse with reference to doctor’s prescription? (с) Declare he does not like pork? (d) Loudly express his indignation with shortsightedness of organizers? (e) Anything else?
CHAPTER IX. CORRUPTION AND BUSINESS
Corruption is defined as the “abuse of [public] office for private gain.” Recently many researchers have suggested expanding the notion of corruption to include corrupt practices within the private sector, political parties, and non-governmental organizations, such as embezzlement and misappropriations. Many researchers agree with a set of basic theses concerning corruption, formulated by Jeremy Pope, the author of the very first comprehensive research of this negative social phenomenon 70 :
♦
there are neither corruption-free countries, nor countries completely overrun by large-scale eternal corruption; ♦
individual anti-corruption measures can reduce the level of corruption only temporarily; ♦
punitive measures are the least effective in fighting corruption; ♦
anti-corruption efforts should aim towards the creation of conditions under which public officials must make decisions based on transparent norms of law; ♦
violations of the law by public officials; ♦
complete defeat of corruption is unattainable, however, it is possible to considerably curb corruption; ♦
grand corruption (large scale embezzlement by the ruling elite) and petty corruption (small unofficial fees collected by petty officials) require different solutions;
70 Jeremy Pope, Confronting Corruption: Elements of a National Integrity Systems, Publication by Transparency International, 2002 ♦
corruption has many forms, of which bribery is the most common, but not the only type; ♦
other examples of corruption include nepotism, abuse of office, and using commercial information for private gain. Corruption vis-à-vis ethics
One can question the relation of ethics to corruption, if corruption, according to the legislation of many countries, is a criminal offence and ethics, as discussed in details in Chapter I, is more a realm of personal choice. The newly adopted Azerbaijan anti-corruption law defines corruption as “Corruption – use by a public official of his/her own status, or the status of the organ represented, or functionary authorities and/or possibilities emerging from such a status and authorities resulting in illegal acquisition of material and non material values, advantages and benefits, including illegal offer and/or promise or giving of such above referenced to material and non material values, advantages and benefits by individuals and legal entities”. 71
Some corrupt practices, such as bribery, are in the domain of criminal law, while others, such as the abuse of office information for personal gain are regulated by administrative law. The third group is subject to civil law, as in the concealment of vital information from public knowledge. Last but not the least, is a category of ethical violations. These are not covered by written legal norms of a given country or company, but are not tolerated by universally accepted moral principles. An example is the unnecessary collection of personal information on employees. The large variety of forms of corruption does not allow corruption in all of its myriad manifestations to be covered by law.
No society condones drug trafficking. Such deeds are unanimously condemned to the criminal sphere and the so-called “black zone of ethics”. If we consider unqualified compliance with the law and ethical principles as a “white zone” of ethics, there is still a broad intermediate field. Many businesses must maneuver in a “gray,” or semi-legal field, without engaging in purely criminal activity. Often this is necessary as businesses are forced to by-pass laws due to their extreme inconsistency and severity. To compound the problem, public officials also take advantage of this system. For businesses, these unofficial payments combined with an unbearable tax burden result in frequent double accounting and tax evasion. This in turn has negative consequences for the state budget.
According to Fazil Mammadov, Minister of Taxes, Hayal company is guilty of the biggest financial abuse among private sector firms, with tax evasion in the amount of 300 million manat. 72
Moreover, even public enterprises and institutions function in a “gray” zone as the result of corruption and insufficient state financing. Such a reality has found its reflection in ethics. Many people claim that there is a big “gray” zone or a neutral ethical field between the black and the white, where one can easily move, even if this field does not fully coincide with the law.
It should be mentioned that attitudes towards corruption differ significantly, depending on a country’s national culture and business environment, as well as its legal framework. In Italy, where public bureaucracy can postpone any decision for months, people do not consider it too much of a sin to “grease” a public official. 73 As for Azerbaijan, bribes to public officials are considered mandatory for any business transaction, from registration to paying a share for protection. The difference is that in Italy people talk about it, but in Azerbaijan businesses are tight-lipped. Rare attempts to disclose corrupt practices result in harsh consequences for those who reveal of corruption.
71 The Anti-corruption Law of the Azerbaijan Republic was adopted on January 13, 2004, but will enter into full legal force as of January 1, 2005 72 Daily News of Great Silk Road International News Agency, Azerbaijan, 12 October 2001 73 R. D. Lewis, Business Cultures In International Business: From Confrontation To Mutual Understanding, Delo Publishing House, Moscow, 2001, p.
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