Almost 55 percent of hotel suppliers have been asked to offer a monetary bribe by a hotel procurement manager, while 72.6 percent of suppliers know of other supply firms that are using bribes, according to the results of a new industry survey carried out earlier this year. The Hotelier Middle East Supplier Survey 2014, which received 108 responses during January and February of this year, also found 46.8 percent of suppliers believe that corruption, in terms of bribery, is a problem in the region's hotel supply sector that is negatively impacting business. The results, published in a recent issue of Hotelier Middle East, highlighted a major challenge for hoteliers and suppliers alike, revealing a tacit acceptance of foul play that has the potential to damage both businesses and personal reputations alike. The most concerning finding was that levels of corruption are increasing, with only 35 percent of suppliers reporting that they had been asked for a bribe in 2012 and 2013, representing an increase of 20 percentage points in the last year. Ten percent of suppliers admitted they might resort to bribery in 2014 and 6.7 percent said they would bribe to secure an order. In 2012, just under half of respondents said they knew of corrupt suppliers engaging in bribery; this year, that number rose to almost three quarters of all respondents, with more than ever before also asserting it was a problem for the industry. According to Simon Parke-Davis, chief representative, Rational, who commented on the results during Gulfood in Dubai, bribery is “normal in this region”, while Bakemart managing director TK Khaleel worried that it would not be “not easy for the industry to overcome this”. “We don’t bribe anyone anywhere in the world. Depending on where you are – in China it’s the same situation, in Europe it doesn’t happen. But I hear it continually in this region. [As an industry] we brush it aside. We ignore it,” said Parke-Davis. “It’s very rife in this region.” This was the consensus from suppliers; that there is an underbelly of corruption which to date, has often been ignored even at the cost of lost contracts to legitimate operators. Rashid B. Bahar, business development manager, TSSC, admitted he had “lost orders because of it”.
