Please read and answer the questions. 4-a) Did Walmart Violate the Foreign Corru

Question

Please read and answer the questions.

4-a) Did Walmart Violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? What is your opinion? If you think it did, what do you think the consequences will be for Walmart?

4-b) Do you agree with people who say that bribery may be justified to grease the wheels so that business can be done in some countries ?

Se ure https/ player heducation corn/-/epub sn 4d09eepbofi %2F6%2F60r%2F4%2F70%5Bdata-uid-b505c7e2262d4563ad9ca807eSd? d Walmart Violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? In the early 2000s, Walmart wanted to build a new store in San Juan Teotihuacan, Mexico, barely a mile from ancient pyramids that drew tourists from around the world. The owner of the land Di s happy to sell to Walmart, but one thing stood in the way of a deal: the city's new zoning laws. These prohibited commercial development in the historic area. Not to be denied, executives the headquarters of Walmart de Mexico found a way around the problem: They paid a $52,000 bribe to a local official to redraw the zoning area so that the property Walmart wanted to purchase was placed outside the commercial-free zone. Walmart then went ahead and built the store, despite vigorous local opposition, opening it in late 2004. A former lawyer for Walmart de Mexico subsequently contacted Walmart executives at the company's corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. He told them that Walmart de Mexico routinely resorted to bribery, citing the altered zoning map as just one example. Alarmed executives at Walmart started their own investigation. Faced with growing evidence of corruption in Mexico, top Walmart executives decided to engage in damage control, rather than coming clean. Walmart's top lawyer shipped the case files back to Mexico and handed over responsibility for the investigation to the general council of Walmart de Mexico. This was an interesting choice s the very same general council was alleged to have authorized bribes. The general council quickly exonerated fellow Mexican executives, and the internal investigation was closed in 2006 For several years nothing more happened; then, in April 2012, the New York Times published an article detailing bribery by Walmart. The Times cited the changed zoning map and several other examples of bribery by Walmart: for example, eight bribes totaling $341,000 enabled Walmart to build a Sam's Club in one of Mexico City's most densely populated neighborhoods without a construction license, an environmental permit, an urban impact assessment, or even a traffic permit. Similarly, thanks to nine bribe payments totaling $765,000, Walmart built a vast pe here to search

Explanation / Answer

1. Yes. By resorting to unethical practices of paying bribes to the government officials to get favourable treatment, privileges and unreasonable accomodation by bending or bypassing the laws, the company is guilty of violation of FCPA. The matter becomes even more serious when the top leadership of the company is engaged in corrupt practices and ensures that all investigations are designed to mislead the regulatory authorities and become a mere eyewash. The practice can not be jsutified even when the bribes are norm in the countires in case, because the company has its origin in the US and while doing unlawful business overseas, it brings bad name to the US as well.

Upon conviction, the company may have to pay the damages to Securities and Exchange commission ( SEC) as well as criminal penalties along with interest. The volume of these may be determined by the gravity of offences committed.

2. Bribery may be justified in some countries, but for the companies listed in the US, the ethical way of doing business is not only related to the integrity of the company but also determines the people's perception about the parent country. In this way, the bribery may make the things easier for short run, it will cost the organisation more in longer time, with gradual deterioration of the values of the organisation both overseas and back home, and its global value on ethical index in the opinion of all stakeholders.

people who justify the bribery are the ones who, in some way or the other benefit from the system. This category is a handful of total population, majority of which are sufferes due to such evils.

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