Conventions overview
- foreign bribery
This page compares the conventions' requirements in terms of:
- Preventive measures
Books and records to prevent money laundering
- Criminalisation and law enforcement
Bribery of foreign public officials | Money laundering
(1) The relevant provisions in the various Conventions usually read for mandatory provisions "Each state Party shall take the necessary steps to/shall adopt such measures as may be necessary to… (e.g. promote, enhance transparency etc.)….". The text in the "Relevant Conventions Provision" box should therefore be read as if preceded by such a sentence. For optional provisions, the provisions begin with such text as "Each state Party shall consider…"
(2) The remark "None" in the column "Relevant Convention Provision" means that there is no explicit provision addressing the particular issue. Some of these issues may, nonetheless, be covered implicitly by the Convention in question.
I. Preventive measures
Measures to establish requirements for books and records and to prevent money laundering
| Convention | Relevant convention provision (1) |
Article
|
Mand.
|
| UN | Take necessary measures
to prevent corruption involving the private sector and enhance
accounting and auditing standards in the private sector. Describes
methods to achieve this. |
12
|
Yes
|
| Institute a comprehensive domestic regulatory and supervisory regime for banks and non-bank financial institutions, in order to deter and detect all forms of money-laundering, with an emphasis on requirements for customer identification, record-keeping and the reporting of suspicious transactions |
14
|
||
| OECD | Take necessary measures regarding the maintenance of books and records, financial statement disclosures, and accounting and auditing standards, to prohibit the establishment of off-the books-accounts and transactions, the making of inadequately identified transactions; provide civil, administrative or criminal penalties with respect to omissions and falsifications Mandatory |
8
|
Yes
|
| AU | Adopt legislative and
other measures to prevent and combat acts of corruption and related
offences committed in and by agents of the private sector |
11(1)
|
Yes
|
| Establish mechanisms to encourage participation by the private sector in the fight against unfair competition, respect of the tender procedures and property rights |
11(2)
|
||
| Adopt such other measures as may be necessary to prevent companies from paying bribes to win tenders |
11(3)
|
||
| CoE (Crim.) | Provide criminal or other sanctions for acts or omissions regarding bribery and trading in influence offences, namely creating an invoice with false or incomplete information or unlawfully omitting to make a record of a payment |
14
|
Yes
|
| CoE (Civil) | Take necessary measures for the annual accounts of companies to be draw up clearly and give a true and fair view of the company's financial position and require for auditors to confirm that the annual accounts present a true and fair view |
10
|
Yes
|
| OAS | Create, maintain and strengthen deterrents to the bribery of domestic and foreign government officials, such as mechanisms to ensure that publicly held companies and other associations maintain books and records accurately reflecting the acquisition and disposition of assets |
III(10)
|
II. Criminalization and law enforcement
Bribery of foreign public officials
| Convention | Relevant convention provision (1) |
Article
|
Mand.
|
| UN | Establish as criminal offence the promise, offering or giving to a public official, and the solicitation or acceptance, of an undue advantage, for himself or another person or entity, in order that he act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his official duties |
16
|
Yes
|
| OECD | Establish that it is a criminal offence for any person intentionally to offer, promise of give any undue advantage to a foreign public official, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in relation to official duties, in order to obtain or retain business or other improper advantage in the conduct of international business |
1(1)
|
Yes
|
| AU | Establish as an offence the solicitation or acceptance by, the offering or granting to, a public official of any benefit in exchange for any act or omission in the performance of his public functions |
4(1)(a) and (b)
|
Yes
|
| CoE (Crim.) | Prohibit the following
forms of bribery: - of foreign public officials (Art 5) - of officials of international organisations (Art 9) - of judges and officials of international courts (Art 11) |
5,9 & 11
|
Yes
|
| CoE (Civil) | Provide for appropriate procedures for persons who have suffered damage as a result of an act of corruption by its public officials to claim for compensation from the state |
5
|
Yes
|
| OAS | Establish as criminal
offences active and passive forms of bribery |
VI(1)(a) (b) & VII
|
Yes
|
| Prohibit and punish trans-national bribery, i.e. the bribery of a government official of another state |
VIII
|
| Convention | Relevant convention provision (1) |
Article
|
Mand.
|
| UN | Establish as criminal offences acts relating to money laundering Mandatory |
23
|
Yes
|
| OECD | Bribery of foreign public official shall be made predicate offence for money laundering if domestic bribery is a predicate office in the State Party |
7
|
Yes
|
| AU | Establish as criminal
offecnes the conversion, transfer or disposal of property which
are the proceeds of corruption for purpose of concealing the illicit
origin or helping someone involved in the corruption |
6 (a)
|
Yes
|
| Concealment of the true nature, source, movement with respect to proceeds of corruption |
6 (b)
|
||
| Acquisition or possession of property knowing such property is the poceeds of corruption |
6 (c)
|
||
| CoE (Crim.) | Money laundering of proceeds from corruption offences to be established as a criminal offence |
13
|
Yes
|
| CoE (Civil) | None |
Yes
|
|
| OAS | Acts of corruption include the fraudulent use or concealment of property derived from any act of corruption |
VI (d)
|
Yes
|
 |
Conventions |
 |
Donors & conventions |
|
Comparing conventions |
|
Links |
| RECOMMENDED READING |
|
Anti-Corruption Conventions in the Americas: What Civil Society Can Do to Make Them Work (A civil society and advocacy guide by Transparency International, 2006) A new TI publication which sets out how civil society can develop an advocacy strategy which promotes the ratification, implementation and inter-governmental follow-up and monitoring of conventions including UNCAC.
Institutional Arrangements to Combat Corruption - A comparative Study (UNDP) The UN Convention against Corruption requires that States designate a body or bodies to coordinate prevention and enforcement measures. This study explores how such institutional arrangements might look, and provides some lessons learned from existing models. A readable, informative resource for practitioners. |
