Transparency international progress report 2005

Abstract

"Transparency International considers the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials to be a key building block in the international legal framework to combat corruption. Effective enforcement of the Convention would significantly reduce the supply side of international corruption as most major international companies have their headquarters in signatory states. TI and its national chapters have strongly promoted the adoption of the Convention, its ratification and the passage of implementing legislation by signatory states. TI has also participated actively in the OECD s follow-up monitoring program. Laws implementing the Convention entered into force in most signatory states in 1999 and 2000. Intergovernmental monitoring of government enforcement has been underway since 1999. Thus, an assessment of government progress in enforcing the Convention s prohibition of foreign bribery is quite timely. Further, the OECD Working Group on Bribery deserves a great deal of praise for the quality of its peer reviews of government enforcement and its country reports. This Progress Report approaches monitoring from a different perspective and presents a nongovernmental assessment of enforcement of the OECD Convention. It is based on information provided by TI national chapters in twenty-four OECD signatory states, which represent about ninety-five percent of OECD exports. Lawyers and other highly qualified professionals and academics were chosen by these national chapters as expert respondents to a TI questionnaire. These respondents consulted with government officials, including many representatives on the OECD Working Group on Bribery and other knowledgeable persons in their country. They were aided in their work by the invaluable Phase I and Phase II country reports prepared by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.1 The TI experts responses cover the number of foreign bribery cases and investigations brought since the OECD Convention became effective in each country. They also provide an assessment of government programs and actions by the OECD, private sector and civil society that are important to enforcement in each country.