Conventions overview
OECD

Adopted: 21 November 1997 by the Negotiating Conference
Signatories: 36 (as of 7 April 2006)
Ratifications: 36 (as of 7April 2006)
Entry into force: 15 February 1999
Open to: all 30 OECD countries and 6 non-member countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovenia). Additional accessions are under consideration.
Official web page: OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions

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The OECD Convention is exclusively focused on the supply side of the bribery of foreign public officials and the sanctions for such activity. All 36 countries take part in the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, which is responsible for implementation of the Convention and carries out monitoring of countries´ compliance with the Convention. The Convention is an instrument which permits OECD and other countries to move in a co-ordinated manner to adopt national legislation to criminalise bribery of foreign officials.

General structure

17 Articles:

Art. 1: The Offence of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials
Arts. 2,3,4,5,6: Responsibility of Legal Persons, Sanctions, Jurisdiction, Enforcement, Statute of Limitations
Art.7: Money Laundering
Art. 8: Accounting
Arts. 9, 10 : Mutual Legal Assistance, Extradition
Art.11: Responsible Authorities
Arts. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17: Monitoring and Follow-up, Signature and Accession, Ratification and Depositary, Entry into Force, Amendment, Withdrawal

Coverage

Sectors covered: Public sector corruption, specifically foreign public officials
Corruption offences covered: Covers specifically bribery of foreign public officials. "Bribery" and "foreign public official" defined broadly
Measures: Criminalisation and mutual legal assistance measures, as well as requirements regarding company accounting. Criminal and civil sanctions.
Level of obligation: Mandatory provisions.

Monitoring Arrangements

Under OECD Convention Art. 12, the parties are required to carry out follow-up to monitor and promote the Convention. The OECD Working Group on Bribery is responsible for this work. It has developed two phases for monitoring compliance with the Convention's obligations. In both phases of the review process there has been provision for active civil society participation. In the first phase, the Working Group evaluated the adequacy of countries´ national implementing legislation in relation to the requirements of the Convention. In the second phase, it assesses whether a country is applying and enforcing this legislation effectively. This phase includes country visits in which a team of examiners meets with government representatives as well as with civil society and private sector representatives. The evaluation system includes both self-evaluation (countries respond to a questionnaire) and mutual evaluation (each country is examined in turn by the Working Group, with teams made up of members from different participating countries). For each country reviewed, the Working Group adopts and publishes a report which includes an evaluation of the country's performance. This report is published on the OECD website.

Main benefits of the Convention

• Addresses supply side of international corruption with regard to the main exporting nations.
• Provides for extensive and rigorous monitoring of countries´ compliance with the Convention (Art. 12)
• Requires that liability of legal persons be established (Art. 2)
• Requires effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalites, or, for legal persons, at least effective non-criminal sanctions (Art. 3)
• Requires foreign bribery to be made a predicate offence for money laundering (Art. 7)
• Requires accounting and auditing standards that prevent hiding bribery of foreign public officials (Art. 8)
• Provides for mutual legal assistance (Art. 9)

Main weaknesses

• Excludes coverage of facilitation payments (also known as "grease" payments)
• Inadequate coverage of foreign subsidiaries
• Inadequate coverage of foreign political parties and party officials
• Does not cover private sector bribery (private-to-private)
• Does not include preventive measures, except for the accounting provisions
• Contains no provisions on whistleblower or witness protection

Next steps

• Phase 2 examinations are underway to assess whether states are implementing their legislation effectively.
• Countries to take steps to comply with the recommendations of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 reports.
• Consideration needs to be given to unresolved issues including coverage of foreign subsidiaries, bribe payment to political parties and party officials, and private-to-private corruption
• Consideration of accession by additional countries

07.4.06