Corruption 'stifling economies' 贪污腐败阻碍经济发展

Bribery¹ and price-fixing are unduly² influencing global public policy and costing countries billions of dollars in lost revenues, a report has claimed.

一项报告称，贿赂和固定价格等过度影响全球经济的国家政策，会使国家耗费数十亿美元财政收入。

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Bribery is just one form of corruption highlighted in the report

Such activities undermined fair competition and stifled⁴（堵） economic growth, Transparency International's latest Global Corruption Report said.

Corruption was widespread, it added, and not confined to（只限于） poor countries.

The study focuses on malpractice（失职，行为不当） involving private sector⁵ firms, based on detailed⁶ research in 45 nations.

Nepotism⁷

Among the specific findings, the report said that almost two out of five businesses surveyed had been asked to provide government officials with bribes⁸.

And half of the international businesses executives polled estimated that corruption added at least 10% to project building costs.

The report said that clear-cut（轮廓鲜明的，清晰的） bribery was only part of the problem.

It pointed⁹ to nepotism（裙带关系）, favouritism（偏袒） and informal understandings between businesses, officials and politicians in many places that led to inefficiency¹⁰（无效率，无能） and gross waste of resources.

The "revolving¹¹ doors" between public office and the private sector were also a path to "deceitful（欺诈） public procurement¹²（取得，征购） deals where non-competitive bidding and opaque¹³（不透明的，难懂的） processes lead to immense waste and unreliable services or goods", it said.

Lobbyist impact

The group's global programmes director, Christiaan Poortman, said he hoped the weight of the financial crisis would not lead policymakers at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh to water down（掺水，冲淡） corruption-fighting efforts.

"It is not just a question of tackling corruption in business - it is also important for financial and economic stability and the ongoing¹⁴ reforms of the global financial architecture," the report said.

And Mr Poortman argued that corruption acted as a catalyst¹⁵ for the global financial crisis - because ratings agencies had a conflict of interest and "turned a blind eye to high levels of risk", something he said was "a form of corruption".

Transparency International said that while many firms had committed to fighting corruption - their efforts often fell short of what had been promised.

It called on companies to issue regular reports on action they were taking to fight corruption, and to reveal any financial support they gave to political parties, lobbyists and governments.

The report points to the corrosive¹⁶（腐蚀的） impact of 16,500 lobbyists working to influence the European Union in Brussels.

And in the US, corporations spent an average of $200,000 a year on lobbying every politician elected to state legislatures, it said.