Bribery

Bribery is defined as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corrupt solicitation, acceptance, or transfer of value in exchange for official action."^[Gifts of money or other items of value which are otherwise available to everyone on an equivalent basis, and not for dishonest purposes, is not bribery. Offering a discount or a refund to all purchasers is a legal rebate and is not bribery. For example, it is legal for an employee of a Public Utilities Commission involved in electric rate regulation to accept a rebate on electric service that reduces their cost for electricity, when the rebate is available to other residential electric customers. However, giving a discount specifically to that employee to influence them to look favorably on the electric utility's rate increase applications would be considered bribery.

Although bribery originally involved interference with judges, its definition has since been expanded to include actions by all sorts of government officials, from the local to the national level, and to cover all public employees. Special provisions also have been enacted in various jurisdictions to punish the bribing of voters, jurors, witnesses, and other lay participants in official proceedings.

As to the nature of the money or favour given or received, the main issue in drafting laws against bribery has been whether to limit the crime to cases in which money or property is the inducement or to extend it to cases in which any benefit or advantage is conferred or promised, as most statutes now do. Practical limitations on the interpretation of such broad language are inevitable, however, because the principle, if applied fully, would criminalize most legislative and executive compromises. One limitation on any charge of bribery is that some element of “corrupt purpose” must be implied or proved, which means that in the absence of a complete statutory prohibition on the granting of favours to a public official, a gift is not a bribe unless there has been some intent to influence the official behaviour of the recipient. Thus, giving a gift or tip to a civil servant out of general friendship or gratitude and without an intent to influence his official behaviour is not punishable as bribery, though it may be prohibited under other legislation limiting corrupt practices. One recurring difficulty in examining cases of public corruption is discovering which of the parties involved took the initiative in the transaction whether the payment was offered to a public official in order to influence his official behaviour or demanded by him in exchange for special consideration or services.