244 CultureShock! Bolivia
Practical Business/Social Tips
Folks from the United States, and even Europeans, often
use the word ‘America’ when referring to the USA. Don’t
commit this error; Bolivians are also from America.
Don’t schedule back-to-back meetings. Business meetings
often extend beyond the expected time period.
Don’t be conditioned to expect the need for a bribe.
(In Bolivian Spanish, the word bribe is coima.) While
bribery still exists in Bolivia, it is not as prevalent as
one is led to expect. That’s my visceral reaction, based
on on-site comparisons with other Latin American
countries. My view is contradicted by the ‘Corruption
Perceptiveness Index’ of the business organisation,
Transparency International, which ranks Bolivia in 118th
place among 158 countries. The lower the number, the
more corruption has been perceived. The best score was
9.7. Bolivia stood at 2.5, equal to Guatemala and Ecuador,
and ahead of only two Spanish speaking countries in the
Américas. Visiting business people are often caught at a
point where an important step in the process is simply
not happening. Routinely, the requirement is either
patience, or one more reference letter of signifi cance. A
willingness to pay an extra ‘service charge’ is a last resort.
(I once did an undercover investigation which discovered
what every Bolivian already knew: that military and
police procurement involves ‘courtesy payments’ to
high ranking offi cials who sign for purchase of goods
and supplies.)
Bolivia is a country of more than nine million inhabitants.
Subtract millions of subsistence farmers, street vendors
and labourers, and you have a business community no
larger than a town in Iowa. Most important occurrences are
detected through the grapevine. An aggressive community
of journalists within an atmosphere of freedom of
expression makes it less and less possible to do business
in an underhanded way. Campaigns against corruption
are commonplace. Corruption lingers on, but the level
of scrutiny from journalists and government policing
agencies has risen signifi cantly.