Siemens Bribery Case Study

Question 1

The management of Siemens knowingly violated the law in respect to bribery. We know this because in the case it states that the European Union and Germany both enacted laws towards bribery. In 2002, bribery to public officials was considered a criminal offence in Europe. Germany took a further step and enlisted bribery to private corporations as well as public officials a criminal offence.

In the “Bribery in Italy” section it states that two employees were caught trying to bribe a public company and their manager tried to justify why the bribery was necessary. This shows that at the time management didn’t take the idea of bribery seriously. Another example is how it explains that companies had to set up subsidiary consulting companies to try and hide the fact of bribing.

Question 2

We believe that Siemens was involved with international bribery because they are a leading company within their industry and they have excess equity. They compete with other firms to win contracts for their services and providing an incentive to the contractor helps improve the possibility of winning the bid.

Another reason Siemens was engaged in international bribery is because as the case states, prior to 1999 German firms were allowed to deduct foreign bribes from their German taxes if they were used to win business. Therefore, bribery may have been heavily rooted in such a well-developed company and to get employees and managers to cease bribing would be difficult. Once bribery was made illegal it must be difficult to change a way of business that the company has been conducting through their history.

Question 3

While there may be jurisdictions where bribery is legal, it should not be an active practice of any corporation to allow bribery in any form.

Question 4

Siemens could implement a number of safeguards to help combat bribery within their company. The first and most important safeguard they could implement would be to join a convention such as OECD or...