ANDRES OPPENHEIMER Don't ignore corporate corruption

The resignation of Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Mig-uel Angel Rodriguez amid accusations that he received bribes while he was president of Costa Rica is making big headlines. But too little attention has been paid to the French telecommunications giant Alcatel, which reportedly paid the suspected bribes.
It's no trivial matter. In every corruption scandal, there is a hand that receives, and a hand that gives. And recent international treaties recognize that unless multinational firms adhere to norms that prohibit corporations from bribing foreign officials, the crucial battle against corruption in developing countries will never be won.
Consider what has emerged so far about Alcatel -- the telecommunications company with annual sales of $14 billion that operates in more than 130 countries -- and its activities in Costa Rica. Based on what has transpired from an ongoing investigation in Costa Rica, Alcatel reportedly paid politicians right and left while it was negotiating a $149 million cellular phone contract in 2001, and another $109 million fixed telephone line contract in 2002.
The scandal exploded last week, when former Costa Rican power and telecommunications director Jose Antonio Lobo was quoted by the Costa Rican daily La Nacion as saying that he and Rodriguez had received a $2.4 million bribe from Alcatel in 2001. Rodriguez was Costa Rica's president at the time.
According to Lobo, when he asked Rodriguez what to do with the funds, he was told to keep 40 percent for himself, and give the president the remaining 60 percent. Rodriguez conceded that he received a $140,000 "loan" from Lobo but said he had no idea the money had come from Alcatel.
But that's only the beginning of the story.
At the top
Rodriguez supporters say Costa Rica's current president, Abel Pacheco, demanded Rodriguez's resignation from the OAS last week as a way to divert attention from his own Alcatel payment scandal.
It turns out that Pacheco, as well as his rival in the 2002 election, received a $100,000 contribution from Alcatel that he failed to report to election authorities. Pacheco has conceded that he received the Alcatel money for his 2002 campaign but says that the payment was not conditioned to any favors on his part.
"I told them they didn't need to give a campaign donation to be treated fairly, but they said they wanted to contribute to democracy anyway," the president was quoted as saying by the daily Al Dia.
Pacheco says Alcatel has not received "a single [government] concession of any kind" since he took office. But Pacheco took office May 8, 2002, and Alcatel got its $109 million fixed telephone lines contract May 14 that year, Al Dia said.
Much of the Alcatel money went from a company account at ABN Amro bank in Holland to ABN Amro in New York, and from there to an account at the International Bank of Miami, according to Costa Rican press reports.
What Alcatel says
When I contacted Alcatel asking for an interview, I received an e-mail response from Charlie Guyer, the company's senior director for North American Media Relations, saying, "This is not a subject for which we would conduct an interview at this time." Hours later, Guyer sent me a statement saying the firm is looking into the case, and that "if necessary, Alcatel will take appropriate measures."
Costa Rican sources close to the investigation told me that new dubious Alcatel payments will surface in coming days. The scandal erupted as the Paris-based daily Le Monde was reporting that another giant French company, Total oil, is under investigation for dubious payments in Russia and Iraq.
If all of this is proved, it means that these companies have not given a hoot about the 1999 Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) convention that forces signatory countries -- including France -- to enact laws prohibiting their companies from bribing foreign officials.
"European countries and Japan are not enforcing international anti-bribery conventions because it hurts their domestic businesses," says Charles Intriago, publisher of the Money Laundering Alert newsletter.
XAndres Oppenheimer is a Latin America correspondent for the Miami Herald. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune.