Bribery, corruption and management in Vietnam

According to Gray & Kaufman (1998) corruption is more prevalent in developing economies mainly as by-product of the desire for pecuniary gain. This desire is a symptom of fundamental economic, political and institutional causes and is not due to cultural difference of values or ethics. Furthermore, the motivation for monetary gain is usually coupled with poor governance measures, or a lack of enforcement of enacted governance legislation and accompanied by poverty, low public sector salaries, and scant or inconsistent accountability. Definitions for bribery and corruption are plentiful and varied. Moise (2000) suggests that there is no single international definition of bribery and corruption as there is no single area where corruption manifests itself. Others like Quinones (2000) contend that even the most widely used definition, which is 'the abuse of public office for private gain' may err on the side of over-simplification. Pancini et al. (2000) describe a bribe as 'a business transaction, albeit an illegal or unethical one, that has the effect of corrupting economic or governance systems as it bestows an unfair advantage on those bestowing the bribe (Pancini et al. 2000, p4). Often the terms of bribery and corruption are used synonymously, although as Johnstone and Brown explain 'the criminalisation of corrupt acts that incorporate bribery is entirely dependent upon the country of usage and customary and legal interpretation' (2004, p218) As a result the definition applied to bribery and corruption is often dependent on the considerations of economic, political and legal perspectives and the relevant issues that are being discussed