Bribery Ban Rarely Enforced

Study finds most exporting nations don't fully enforce OECD convention

Most of the world's leading exporting countries fail to fully enforce a ban on foreign bribery, according to a new report prepared by Transparency International.

 

The report shows that only four out of 36 countries evaluated actively enforce the Anti-Bribery Convention of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to which they are party. (In all, 38 countries have signed the convention.) There is "moderate" enforcement of the convention in 11 other countries and "little to no enforcement" in the remaining 21 countries.

This uneven enforcement jeopardizes the success of the convention, the TI report says. "Political will must be at the heart of efforts to deliver on anti-bribery," said Cobus de Swardt, managing director of TI. "Especially in the current global recession when businesses face acute pressure to win declining orders, accelerated enforcement is needed to ensure fair competition."

 

The OECD Convention faces serious challenges because of such factors as antiquated bribery laws, outright political obstruction of investigations, lack of adequate funding for prosecutors, and the curtailing of the powers of investigative judges. Another major obstacle to enforcement is that countries are using the excuse of "national security" as a reason for not prosecuting foreign bribery. The report says that it is essential to reaffirm that the convention does not permit national security exceptions.

"When the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention came into force a decade ago it was a historical and much needed leap forward in the fight against corruption worldwide. The rich countries of the world committed to bring their house in order, deal a major blow to supply side corruption and give the fight against poverty worldwide a real chance to succeed," said de Swardt. "However, unless the OECD makes it an urgent, high-level priority for all parties to enforce the convention, inaction by some countries will encourage backsliding by others."

 

Although it is encouraging that Israel and South Africa have joined the convention in the last two years, China, India and Russia also need to join, the report says. The only countries that are fully enforcing the convention today are Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and the United States. The eleven countries where there is "moderate" enforcement of the convention are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom. The 21 countries where there was "little or no enforcement" were Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, and Turkey.

 

(Source: American Shipper)