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Bribery is the act of giving money, goods or other forms of recompense to a recipient in exchange for an alteration of their behavior (to the benefit/interest of the giver) that the recipient would otherwise not alter. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by legislator 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 or legal duty.
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. If the rebate was done to influence them to look favorably on the electric utility’s rate increase applications, however, that would be bribery, and unlawful.
The bribe is the gift bestowed to influence the recipient’s conduct. It may be money, goods, rights in action, property, preferment, privilege, emolument, objects of value, advantage, or merely a promise to induce or influence the action, vote, or influence of a person in an official or public capacity.
In economics, the bribe has been described as rent. Bribery in bureaucracy has been viewed as a reason for the higher cost of production of goods and services.
The offense of bribery is the one from most important crimes due to their impact on the regularity of work within government departments, companies, and its threat on the lives of citizens, for that the Egyptian legislator has interested more about explain the crime and determine hard punishment for that.
The Egypt criminal act has determined those people who can be subject of the bribery crime as:
In applying the provisions of this Chapter, the following shall be considered practically as officials:
Also it has determined the types of the criminal action from those accused witch put them directly under criminal responsibility according to every person as:
The public official/civil servant:
Any public official/civil servant who asks for himself or for a third party, or accepts, or takesa promise or a donation in order to perform any of the duties of his position shall be considered bribe taker. Permanent hard labor and a fine of not less than one thousand pounds and not exceeding the donation or the promise he was given.
Any benefit obtained, accepted, or learned of by the bribe-taker or by the person he appoints for that, shall be considered as a promise or donation, whatever its name or kind, and whether that benefit is physical or non-physical.
Any public official/civil servant who demands for himself or for a third party, or accepts or takes a promise or donation to perform or refrain from performing a work which he erroneously believes or alleges it constitutes part of his position duties shall be considered bribe-taker and be liable to the same penalty prescribed before.
Any public official/civil servant who demands for himself or for a third party, or accepts or takes a promise or donation to refrain from performing a work of his position duties, or to default on its duties, or to compensate him/her for any deed thereof that has taken place, shall be liable to punishment with permanent hard labor and with paying double the fine mentioned before.
Any public official/civil servant who demands for himself or for a third party, or accepts or takes a promise or donation to perform or refrain from performing a work of his position duties or which he erroneously believes to be or alleges it is part of his position duties, or to default on the duties of the position, shall be liable to punishment with the bribery penalty as prescribed in the three previous Articles, according to each case, even if he has in mind not to perform that work, or not to refrain from it, or not to default on the duties of the position.
Imprisonment, and paying a fine of not less than one hundred pounds, and not exceeding five hundred pounds, shall be the penalty inflicted on each public official/civil servant who accepts a present or a donation from a person for whom he performs a work of his position duties or refrains from performing any duty thereof, or defaults on the duties of the position, after completing or refraining from doing that work, or defaulting on his position duties with the aim of being compensated therefor, and without a prior agreement.
Imprisonment and paying a fine of not less than two hundred pounds and not exceeding five hundred pounds shall be the penalty inflicted on each public official/civil servant who performs or refrains from performing a work of his position duties, or defaults on the duties of his position as a result of an entreatment, recommendation, or mediation.
An employee:
Any employee who demands for himself, or for a third party, or accepts or takes a promise or donation without the knowledge or satisfaction of his master, in order to perform or refrain from performing a work of the duties he is charged to fulfill, shall be considered a bribe-taker and shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years and a fine of not less than two hundred pounds and not exceeding five hundred pounds or either penalty.
Whoever demands for himself or for a third party, or accepts or takes a promise or donation in order to use a genuine or alleged influence, or to obtain or try to obtain from any public authority, works, orders, rulings, decisions, medals, a concession, a license, an agreement for supply or a contracting agreement, a position, a service, or any privilege and benefit of any kind, shall be considered practically as good as a bribe-taker, and shall be liable to the punishment prescribed in Article104 of this law, if he is a public official/civil servant, and a detention and a fine of not less than two hundred pounds and not exceeding five hundred pounds, or either penalty only in the other cases.
Any quarter that is subject to supervision by the public authority shall be considered practically as good as a public authority.
Another types :
Any board member of a joint stock company, a cooperative association, or a union established according to the rules prescribed legally, or of any establishment or associationthat is legally considered a public utility, and also any director or employee of these bodies who demands for himself or for a third party, accepts, or takes a promise or donation to perform or refrain from performing a work of his position duties , or which he erroneously believes or alleges to be part of the duties of his position, or to default on the duties of the position shall be considered a bribe-taker and shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years and a fine of not less than five hundred pounds and not exceeding what he was given or promised to be given, even if the felon has in mind not to effect the work, or not to refrain from it, or not to default on the duties of his position.
The felon shall be punished with the same penalties if the demand, acceptance, or receipt of the donation or the promise comes subsequent to the performance of the work, to the refrain from its performance, or to the default on the duties of the position, and is so done with the aim of getting a compensation on it, and also without prior agreement.
The briber and the mediator’s punishment:
The briber and the mediator shall be punished with the penalty prescribed for the bribe-taker. However, the briber or mediator shall be exempted from the penalty if he/she notifies the crime to the authorities, or admits it.
The purpose of the bribe and its impact on punishment:
If the purpose of the bribe is to commit a deed punished by the law with a severer penalty than the one prescribed for the bribe, the briber and the bribe-taker as well as the mediator shall be punished with the penalty prescribed for the deed, together with the fine prescribed for the bribe.
The briber or mediator shall be exempted from the penalty if he/she notifies the crime to the authorities.
an accomplice in the crime of bribery:
Any person who is appointed to take the donation or benefit, or learns of it, and is agreed to by the bribe-taker, or takes or accepts something of that sort while being aware of its reason, shall be penalized with detention for a period of not less than one year and a fine equal to the value of what he was donated or promised to be given, if he has not acted as go-between for the bribe.
who offers the bribe and the bribe is not accepted from:
Imprisonment and a fine of not less than five hundred pounds and not exceeding one thousand pounds shall be inflicted on whoever offers a bribe and the bribe is not accepted from him/her, if the offer is made to a public official/civil servant. If the offer is made to other than a public official/civil servant, the penalty shall be detention for a period not exceeding two years or paying a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds.
Another types for this criminal action:
Without prejudice to any stricter penalty imposed by the Penal Code or any other law, detention and paying a fine of not less than two hundred pounds and not exceeding five hundred pounds or either penalty shall be inflicted on whoever offers or accepts a mediation in a bribery, but his deed does not exceed making the offer or accepting the mediation.
If a public official/civil servant commits the foregoing crime, the felon shall be punished by Permanent hard labor and a fine of not less than one thousand pounds and not exceeding the donation or the promise he was given.
If this takes place with the aim of mediating with a public official/civil servant, the felon shall be punished with the penalty of imprisonment and paying a fine of not less than two hundred pounds and not exceeding five hundred pounds.
In all cases, the ruling shall order confiscating whatever is paid by the briber or mediator by way of a bribe according to the previous punishment.
http://lawyer-egy.com/law-projects/the-bribery-deu-to-egypt-criminal-act.html
