Bribery

This chapter focuses on the Bribe Payers’ Index, which ranked the construction industry as the sector in which firms were most likely to pay and receive bribes. It reviews the very nature of the construction industry that makes it more susceptible to bribery than other industries as large projects are complex and will often involve interaction between multiple parties. It also emphasizes how bribery can occur at any stage in a construction project, such as in planning, design, tendering, construction, operation, and maintenance. This chapter recounts the reform of the law on bribery that dates back to the Nolan Committee’s Report on Standards in Public Life in 1995, which was set up in response to concerns about unethical conduct by those in public office. It refers to the Law Commission that first made proposals for reform of bribery in its 1998 Report.