Are facilitation payments bribes?

An agent from another country may ask you for extra money to process paperwork. A border patrol officer may ask for a favor to allow your shipment to entry a country faster. Or even so, an employee from the Department of Motor Vehicles may be willing to give you your renewed driver’s license without the need for examinations, as long as you give them a gift.

These are all examples of facilitation payments. At FAFPI, we understand these as a ‘small amount paid to a government official to speed up the performance of a routine process to which the payer is already legally entitled to’. However, depending on where you come from, you might know facilitation payments through other synonyms.

In the United States, facilitation payments are also known as grease payments, which are considered legal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Only three other countries allow facilitation payments: Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. However, this remains illegal under the countries’ domestic legislation, and only apply to payments conducted in foreign countries.

The reason for these countries legalizing facilitation payments is due to its distinguishment from bribes. But should that distinction exist?

Bribes can also occur in many scenarios, upon which they are offered or solicited in return for an illegal advantage. At first sight, bribes might seem opposite to facilitation payments, as the end goal there is to achieve something you are in the legal right to receive. However, both involve an undue use of money as an advantage, and both are against the principles of fairness, equality, and due process. An example of legislation defining facilitation payments as forms of bribery is the UK Bribery Act and the French Anti-Corruption law Sapin I.

In some cases, facilitation payments may be forcibly extracted or be a part of coercive threats to the safety or liberty of staff. As the safety of personnel is a priority, some company policies may permit these payments in dangerous circumstances. This highlights how facilitation payments can become dangerous, and even more why we need to fight against them.

Due to the high variation of these scenarios, it is important to be able to identify facilitation payments when they are being requested and to register their occurrences. This is detrimental to eradicating facilitation payments, as they are a sign of corruption.

Do you agree that facilitation payments should be seen as bribes? Let us know your opinion in the comments.

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