Corruption causes grave damage to many countries. It leads to governments building unnecessary conference centres, dams and palaces. It results in leaders buying guns, tanks and military aircraft when they have no enemies apart from their own people. Corruption ravages nascent democratic institutions and destroys people's belief that they can improve their lives through honest effort. Yet for companies doing business in much of the developing world, the choice is not between paying bribes and being honest. It is between paying bribes and not doing business. There are countries where nothing gets done without illicit money changing hands.