v. reports on enforcement in oecd convention countries - Begroting

I. INTRODUCTION
This is the seventh annual Progress Report on Enforcement of the OECD Convention prepared by Transparency
International (TI), the global coalition against corruption. The OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign
Public Offi cials in International Business Transactions, adopted in 1997, requires each State Party to make foreign
bribery a crime. The Convention has 38 parties and is overseen by the OECD Working Group on Bribery. The
Working Group conducts a follow-up monitoring process under which representatives of two governments and the
Secretariat visit each member country and assess its compliance with the Convention’s provisions. The monitoring
process is now in its third phase, which focuses primarily on enforcement and on the steps which countries have
taken to follow up on recommendations in prior reviews.
The OECD Convention is a key instrument for combating global corruption because the parties are involved in
two-thirds of international trade and three-quarters of international investment. The Working Group’s monitoring
process has been conducted in a rigorous and highly professional manner, which provides a model for other treaties.
Follow-up monitoring is important to make sure that governments comply with their treaty commitments.
TI’s annual progress <strong>reports</strong> represent an independent assessment of the status of OECD Convention enforcement.
The <strong>reports</strong> have shown steady progress in the decade since the Convention went into effect. There is now active
enforcement in seven countries, which represent 30 per cent of world exports, and moderate enforcement in nine
countries, which represent 20 per cent of world exports. However, there is little or no enforcement in 21 countries,
which represent 15 per cent of world exports. There has been no change in these numbers in the past year. This
trend raises concern about whether the Convention is losing forward momentum. Continued lack of enforcement
in 21 countries a decade after the Convention entered into force, notwithstanding repeated OECD reviews, clearly
indicates lack of political commitment by their governments. And in some of those with moderate enforcement,
the level of commitment is also uncertain. This is a danger signal because the OECD Convention depends on the
collective commitment of all parties to ending foreign bribery.
Progress Report 2011: Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
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