Law

Grady is the president of an engineering firm. The firm is negotiating a contract in another
country. The engineering firm has not previously worked in this country. A high-ranking official
in this country tells Grady that it is an established and legal custom to give personal gifts to
officials who are authorized to award contracts. This official also informs Grady that no further
work will be awarded to Grady’s firm without such gifts. However, this condition will not be
included in the contract. If Grady does not comply, the government will also be less cooperative
in the completion of the first contract. Grady learns that other firms have given such gifts to
officials.
Use the following questions, to determine whether the above situation demonstrates ethical
behavior.

1. Is the action(s) illegal? Does the action violate any laws?

While the two ethical theories, deontology and cultural relativism lie in their own faction, law is
essential for the functioning and regulation of a working society. Another frame Grady must use
to decide whether to comply with the host country’s conditions, is law. The act of giving
personal gifts to officials who are authorized to award contracts can be put into one word,
bribery. There is a fine line between a bribe and a gift. Gifts are acceptable and have no legal
consequences to them, as a gift is an item of value gifted without any expectations of a return,
but a bribe is also an item(s) of value given with the intention of influence, benefit, or return
(Nadler; Schulman, 2003). In Grady’s case, calling it a personal gift is being untruthful, because
in fact it is a bribe as, “no further work would be awarded to Grady’s firm without such gifts”.
To add context to the case study, UAE’s laws can be taken as a viewpoint to add measure to the
possible consequences of bribery. The UAE doesn’t have definitive ani-bribery laws, but they
have decided regarding it in the amended UAE Penal Code. Articles 234 to 239 of Federal Law
No. (3) of 1987 was amended and expanded towards the end of 2018 by Federal Law No. (4),
and it is as follows.
Articles 234, 235 and 237(bis) are about offences related to offering and receiving a
bribe. It is an offence for any public official, and or personal assigned to public/ international
services to accept, request, or take directly or indirectly a bribe and promise of the same, in
exchange for the performance of any act(s) or in breach of their duties. The penalty for a
recipient of a bribe, under these articles, is temporary imprisonment.
Article 236(bis) is regarding a separate offence for public sectors’ passive bribery, which
is requesting or receiving a bribe. It forbids those who are employed by an entity or
establishment in the public sector from accepting, requesting, or being promised, both directly or
indirectly a bribe to omit or commit an act that is a part of their duties.
The penalty pertinent to Articles 236(bis) to 237 is imprisonment for up to 5 years.
The punishments for offenses mentioned in Articles 234 to 237(bis) are also punishable
by a fine that is equal to that of the bribe’s amount but nothing less than AED 5000. (Kelly; Jane
Shortall, 2022)
In Grady’s case if he wishes to process with the idea of “gifting”, Articles 234 to 237(bis) are
applicable as not only are officials committing the offence of bribery, but government personnel
are also omitting from their duties of processing contracts at a uniform rate, at the same time
committing the offence of requesting, indirectly, a bribe to allow Grady’s company to work in
this country at all.
A real-life example can be stated to provide an insight of the consequences of bribery in the
UAE. A woman had failed her driving test seven times before she attempted to bribe a female
employee working in the licensing and traffic department for the Sharjah Police. She offered
chocolates and AED 500 to the female staff to help her get over a hurdle while at the same time
requesting to issuer her a driver’s license. She was charged with bribery that is an offence and
punishable under Articles 237 and 238 of the Federal Penal Code, which state that any offer
made to a public official, regardless of if he/she had accepted it or not, would be punished by
imprisonment and a fine. She had been sentenced to 6 months in jail and was fined AED 5000
before being deported (Agarib, 2018). This was in an attempt for an expat to get driving license,
if put into Grady’s context, he wants to company in a foreign country. Bribing officials with
“personal gifts” in that state is of greater intensity than that of the woman in Sharjah. The
consequences Grady would face would be beyond measure if he wished to do the same in UAE.

Following this, Grady must understand bribes are not accepted anywhere in a legal manner. Even
though government officials in the host country would be less cooperative in the completion of
the first contract, legally, this shouldn’t encourage Grady’s intentions of inclining to giving
“personal gifts”; bribes. It is illegal and would violate laws in any given country. While the case-
study mentions the government of the host country prone to receiving bribes, universally, no
country’s laws are or would authorize bribery. There is always risk of being punished for
bribery, hence Grady shouldn’t comply with the conditions of gifting, at least from a legal point
of view.

Citation

1. Agarib, Amira. “Woman Gets Jail for Offering Bribe to Pass Driving Test in UAE.”
Khaleej Times, Khaleej Times, 15 Jan. 2018, https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/woman-
gets-jail-for-offering-bribe-to-pass-driving-test-in-uae.
2. “Bribery & Corruption Laws and Regulations: United Arab Emirates: GLI.” GLI -
Global Legal Insights - International Legal Business Solutions, Global Legal Group,
https://www.globallegalinsights.com/practice-areas/bribery-and-corruption-laws-and-
regulations/united-arab-emirates.
3. University, Santa Clara. “Gifts and Bribes.” Markkula Center for Applied Ethics,
https://www.scu.edu/government-ethics/resources/what-is-government-ethics/gifts-and-
bribes/.