Businesses in India and China are the most likely to engage in bribes and dirty dealings, according to the latest Transparency International Bribe Payers Index.

India consistently ranks low on the poll of more than 11,000 business people in 125 countries polled in the world Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey 2006.

And it's a worry that China, the world's fourth largest exporter, is ranked second most corrupt.

But the index, which ranks respondents' experience of which countries' firms are most prepared to pay bribes, suggests that anti-corruption laws in the developed world are having little impact.



French and Italian companies, for example, were ranked as among the worst perpetrators in Africa, according to the TI press release.

Says TI chief executive David Nussbaum: "It is hypocritical that OECD-based companies continue to bribe across the globe, while their governments pay lip-service to enforcing the law. TI's Bribe Payers Index indicates that they are not doing enough to clamp down on overseas bribery.

"The enforcement record on international anti-bribery laws makes for short and disheartening reading. The rules and tools for governments and companies do exist. Domestic legislation has been introduced in many countries following the adoption of the UN and OECD anti-corruption conventions, but there are still major problems of implementation and enforcement."

The United States, for example, brought in the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act but it still continues to lag behind other OECD countries.

And while Australia is ranked as the third least corrupt, the scandal surrounding the bribes paid by wheat agency AWB to Saddam Hussein - and the Australian government's collusion - shows there is still a lot of work to be done.

Indeed, only half the top 100 listed Australian companies have rules prohibiting bribes, compared with 92 per cent of British companies, 80 per cent of US outfits and 90 per cent of European businesses.

It's something I have explored more here.

Clearly, the developing nations have their problems. But there's room for improvement in the developed world too.