Facilitation payments are in fact bribes and should be banned as a business practice, according to the new version of Transparency International’s Business Principles for Countering Bribery.
Previous versions of the anti-corruption group’s business principles advocated against facilitation payments but did not go so far as a blanket ban on such payments. Now the group has strengthened its position against facilitation payments “in light of changing corporate practice” as well as new legislation like the U.K. Bribery Act, which does prohibit facilitation payments, according to a new version of the principles released last month.
