After the ineptness apparently shown by BAE in directly transferring cash it appears that many people do not know how to pay bribes properly. Lot of companies with ethics committees and auditors, so, for the benefit of BAE and others who need to learn how to it properly, this is how you bribe foreign government officials:

1. Enter into a joint venture and let your local partner pay the bribes. You can claim to have had no idea what was happening, and if you are dealing with a country where bribery is routine, keeping all the payments and records there will reduce the chances of discovery.
2. Sub-contract to, or buy supplies from, people connected to those you want to bribe, at inflated prices.
3. Give donations to charities, political parties etc. This one is good, because it even works in countries with proper law enforcement. If you need a favour from a politican, no one can prove it was anything other than coincidence that you pumped a huge amount of money into their constituency, or donated to party funds etc.
4. Give their family jobs at inflated salaries. Not useful for big bribes , because even at the most generous companies, hiring someone at millions of pounds a year can draw attention.
5. Buy something expensive and let them have use of it. The lack of a financial transaction makes it harder to trace. Of course, you may have to explain why your company has bought a Caribbean island….

No doubt I have missed a few: I am not an expert on this area!

Of course, what I have never figured out is how one finds out that someone is willing to take a bribe in the first place. What do you do, say “Give us the contract and you can have £50m?”. In fact, I think the answer is to higher intermediaries who do that for you, although I have also heard stories of people who simply way “what’s in it for me”, which no doubt simplifies things nicely.