By TIOL News Service

PARIS, DEC 13, 2017: THE Chair of the OECD Working Group on Bribery, Mr Drago Kos, has said, "Corruption facilitates some of the most important global threats of our time, such as terrorism, climate change and the refugee crisis. It’s vital that we ramp up our fight to contain this threat to our economies and societies."

In the 20 years since the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention was established, the 43 member states have all adopted the legislation needed to fight foreign bribery. These include the laws of liability on legal persons; making bribes non tax deductible; having effective, and sometimes specialised, anti-corruption agencies in place; and we have started to reach the companies many previously considered untouchable.

Since the entry into force of the Convention, 443 individuals and 158 entities have been sanctioned under criminal proceedings for foreign bribery. In 2016, around 500 investigations were underway in 29 countries, an increase of around 100 on 2015. In addition to the positive example set by leading countries like Germany and the United States, others, namely France, Italy and the Netherlands, have also stepped up their efforts in the past two years. But too many countries are still lagging behind in investigating, prosecuting and enforcing their laws around foreign bribery and corruption. Of the 43 parties to the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention, 23 have yet to conclude a single foreign bribery enforcement action, he added.

A new report released in Paris to mark the 20th anniversary of the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention, The Detection of Foreign Bribery, outlines other critical areas where improvements are needed. Whistleblowers have an important role to play in revealing foreign bribery cases and often provide pivotal evidence for a successful prosecution. Yet two thirds of adhering countries still do not provide satisfactory protection. This needs to change and will become a priority issue in the upcoming Working Group on Bribery country evaluations. Tax authorities also have an important role to play and countries need to ensure that their tax authorities are able to share information with law enforcement authorities.