Despite crackdown, Asia firms are slow to comply

Only 40 percent of Asia companies have anti-bribery policies in place, compared with a global average of 81 percent last year.

An EY survey polled 681 executives in China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and South Korea.

Despite a huge increase in investigations and enforcement in Asia and China in particular, companies aren’t yet stepping up with more compliance protections.

The survey found 48 percent who said their companies’ anti-bribery policies were good in principle but not in practice.

Only 32 percent have whistleblower programs.

Asia is home to about 4.2 billion people. And three of its countries — China, Japan, and India — rank among the world’s ten biggest economies.

‘In China, 19 percent [of the respondents] said fraud and bribery had increased due to difficult economic times and greater competition, while 34 percent said their managements were likely to take short cuts in tough times,’ the South China Morning Post said.

Even in squeaky-clean Singapore, the survey found, 59 percent said their companies’ anti-bribery policies were good in principle but did not work well in practice.

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Richard L. Cassin is the Publisher and Editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.