Corporate bribery expert: “The EU is ahead of Switzerland in the fight against corruption”

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Daniel Bühr (59) has been interested in good corporate governance and therefore the fight against corruption for almost 20 years. First on the corporate side, as a lawyer and partner at the law firm Lalive in Zurich since 2011. Until recently, Bühr was president of the Swiss NGO “Ethics and Compliance Switzerland”, a cross-sectoral organization advocating ethical and clean management of all organizations.

Blick: A study by Transparency International and the Graubunden University of Applied Sciences shows that corruption is still widespread among Swiss companies operating abroad. Are you surprised by this?
Daniel Bühr: No, the result did not surprise me. Previous studies have already shown this.

Why doesn’t anything change?
There’s a lot going on. Efforts to run a business well and properly have evolved greatly over the last 15 years. You also need to separate the supply and demand sides.

What does this mean?
In many emerging and developing countries, corruption is the biggest risk for a company. As in the private sector, there are still decision makers in politics who expect to get a share when tenders are made. Demand for bribe payments remains high. A commission of one to three percent is good, anything above that involves risk.

A company does not have to respond or accept the offer.
A company would never voluntarily pay for an unfair benefit it claimed. A company pays a bribe in a situation where you are told that you will not get the contract if you do not provide this benefit. However, this is an explanation that is no longer acceptable today. The view that this is just part of the culture of these countries is no longer valid. Corruption is a crime for people on the street everywhere. Corruption no longer exists.

Who says?
For example, the EU. Next year all major companies will have to disclose, among other things, how they fight corruption. Anyone who fails to report or engage in a corruption case risks being kicked out of entire Western supply chains. This also applies to Swiss companies and their suppliers. The EU is much further ahead of Switzerland in the fight against corruption in terms of future reporting obligations. If there is no longer a supply, that is, if companies no longer want to pay, the demand for bribes will decrease.

This almost sounds too good to be true.
It’s a matter of the right strategy. For example, there were companies that had to regularly pay bribes at customs. Until one day they showed up with T-shirts saying that our company does not give bribes. They were never asked for a bribe at customs again.

Compliance departments are getting bigger and regulations are getting thicker. Is it enough?
NO. Fighting corruption is a matter of corporate culture. This must be visible, credible and actively demonstrated from above. The board and management need to clearly commit to a zero tolerance strategy, then this will also reach the grassroots. This is crucial for a sustainable economy: Corruption is at the root of many environmental sins, human rights violations and child labor. Corruption is the fundamental evil that gives rise to many other evils.

It’s a fundamental evil, but it rarely ends up in court, especially in Switzerland.
This also has to do with the fact that there is no exit clause in Switzerland, contrary to antitrust law. Legal risks are not insignificant for a company trying to get out of systemic corruption. There is no clear guidance in Switzerland on how a company can get out of this situation and come clean. There are such regulations in other countries as well.

Source :Blick