In the summer of 2007, the media announced that the arms company BAE which is a British defense firm, secretly paid more than $2 billion in bribes for over 20 years to a member of the Saudi Arabia royal family, the Prince Bandar. The Prince had provided one of the biggest weapons contract with Britain; Saudi Arabia was purchasing warplanes, spare parts, and training for Saudi pilots. After they found that BAE was paying bribes to the Prince, some of the payments were channeled by an ambassador through a United States bank. After that, the British Fraud Office started investigating these transactions. Consequently, the Prime Minister Tony Blair gave the order to put an end to the investigation for “national security” reasons. It is worth to mention that the contracts are still valid nowadays, and the 10-15 commissions of agents are distributed between head of state, generals, and their friends. …show more content…
People who are involved in the government, such as majors, prime ministers, presidents, etc. are easily criticized for not doing what is ethical and legal, which is why they need to consider all the pros and cons before taking action. In this ethical dilemma, Blair’s position was unacceptable and unethical because he decided to ignore all the bribery affairs, thus allowing something illegal. In consequence of the action taken by Blair, many citizens were not happy at all, and the ending of the investigation incited an outcry of the anti-corruption
RAND was authorized by the European Parliament to give an analysis on the estimate of future corruption expenses in the EU. 2014 indicated that the cost in EU was up to 120 billion euros. Referring back to the EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, she stated that “the true cost was probably much higher than 120 billion euros” (Hafner 1). The cost cited speaks only to what can be tracked and traced, it does not address to those under the governments radar where influence peddling and lobbying is sometimes settle and often under the guise of diplomatic custom, meaning the way one does business in government. Corruptions can take many forms such as bribery of public officials, noted the incidents in Italy of mafia infiltration into government offices and control of economic institutions. Rome 2014 was also the year that a corruption scandal emerged and was brought to the public’s attention. Investigators discovered that city hall officials in Rome had been working with mafia mobsters. This is one of many examples of how government officials accept bribery for the sake of their individual self, rather than the needs of the people. This is the reason that checks and balances are necessary within governments to help prevent corruption where absolute power is prevented by a system of checks and balances that can be found in a more democratic system. The quest for power and the greed of men creates an opening for corruption to invade the political process. Corruption can easily be avoided if all men were altruistic and sought the benefit for all citizens. However, the nature of men is one of greed and complete dominance over
Someone who is abusing the power that is given to him or her defines corruption, however, the word in its self is more than a simple idea; it is an intricate network. Since people’s views about ethical and moral behavior affect the way corruption is examined, the word has a slightly different meaning to each person. Additionally, misconduct across various societies is viewed differently due to social and cultural borders. The criminal justice system has had many instances where corruption had affected the outcome of a case and has inserted itself into the legal process.
There is always a conductor of corruption, an authority figure who knowingly exploits the mind of others. They look at what they perceive is right versus what is actually right. In the case
One major point that there is corruption in the United States Government is all the scandals that have occurred in the past. One of the most known is the Watergate Scandal. This occurred during Richard Nixon’s presidency. Nixon was drove from office before he could be impeached for obstruction justice.(Grossman) ”Although no one in power profited financially from the matter, Watergate nonetheless is perhaps the most egregious example of political corruption because of the effect it had in subverting the political process.” “Responding to a request from
However, as the case continues to unravel and some of the prosecuted personal motives have not yet been determined by prosecutors because of the ongoing trial. The trial proceeding that has been released hint possible of corruptions not only from mid-level officials but from higher officials as well. As Sheldon Steinberg and David Austern determined that “Corrupt behavior occurs within the interaction of three facts incentive, or the size of the benefit; opportunity, or the ease of access to the corrupt practice; and risk, or the chance detection” (Austern,
the actions of the corrupt officers were wrong and unethical. They weighed the positive results
from 2003 to 2013 made 81 improper payments through commissions to employees of foreign governments or their third-parties. These payments totaled over $9 million, and resulted in more than $34 million in profits. These commissions were approved by senior management at Celcat or Condel, but the real purpose of the payments were concealed from GCC’s executive management.
Most of the news stories today report on several scandals involving high-profile government officials with corruption being the major criminal aspect. In a news story reported by Thomas, Ryan, Date, and Cook (2009), one brazen crime occurred in Tennessee whereby the then Hamilton County Sheriff William Horace was caught on tape taking bribes. Another case is reported by Wines (2014) whereby Virginia governor Bob McDonnell was indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges. These are the only few cases among several strings of scandals that have continued to affect the credibility of public service. According to Wines (2014), since 2000, there are eight governors and former governors who have been found guilty of crimes. Doss et al. (2013) point out that there are ethical dilemmas that exist in all these cases. In a way, one would be right to assert that it is odd to haul politicians and high-profile government officials before judges and prosecutors. Investigators also have a hard task dealing with such cases especially considering that the persons they are investigating are of high status in society. This has always created fear among investigators because they have to make hard choices. The same case applies to prosecutors who feel that ruling a case in favor of a politician would spark public outcry. However, they
Corruption is the dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery (Jones). When a person or a group of people are in power, situations arouse where they can acquire anything by lying, bribing, conning, or stealing. History can prove this statement to be true with instances such as the Nigerian military scandal in which persons in high places in the Nigerian government took large amounts of money for their own personal wants (. A different situation in which corruption took place was in the case of Monica Lewinsky Scandal involving president Bill Clinton and one of his inters Monica Lewinsky having an affair while President Clinton was married. One example of corruption in literature is that of the book Macbeth where he kills his king in order to attain more power. Lastly, an example of corruption in high power was the Catholic church and its indulgences, using pilgrimages and other such
6. Evaluate whether the changes in Exhibits 4 and 5 are likely to stop future foreign corrupt practices at Baker Hughes.
Political corruption faces a few ethical dilemmas. The prosecution faces so many issues when attempting to prosecute political figures for crimes of bribery or corruption. Conviction of political members requires a strong case against the accused and witnesses or whistleblower are usually essential in developing that case. The seniority of the political member doesn’t matter any acts of improprieties has to be held accountable. Speech or Debate Clause was developed to protect legislators from being persecuted by prosecution while conducting official legislative to further their constituent. These laws set in place makes prosecution of political figure for corrupting difficult and these ethical dilemmas the prosecutions encounter conflicts with
Brenda Franklin had been serving Allied Tech for the past 8 years. As any other organisations, Brenda used to be a part of the lunch hour conversations with her colleagues. One day when her colleagues were discussing about corruption and politics, something occurred to her. As a result she prepared a list called “Ethically Dubious Conduct” and pasted it on the common notice board. Her colleagues were taken by surprise. Brenda was now anticipating the next lunch where she was expecting her list to be analysed among her colleagues.
Political corruption is parasitic; it finds a host, and can almost always find a way to survive. Eventually, people grow dependent on this corruption as a means for income, thus forming a symbiosis between the people who benefit from it, and the elites that regulate it. People sometimes ignore the corruption surrounding them, feeling that as long as the politicians do their jobs well, their ‘extra salary’ can’t hurt (BNS).
Thesis Statement: In order to determine whether a moral issue is categorized as a bribe, the ethical concepts of bribery must first be defined.
With the rapid globalization of the market, innovation tends to be increasingly important in service industry and service management literature. In order to attract more attention, many enterprise start to operate the business in some new strategies. Club Mediterranee, as known as Club Med, is a specific example in the service industry. Case ‘Club Med’ is an evaluation case. This essay aims to critically analyze the success and potential problems of the company by using SWOT analysis.