good governance practices for the protection of human rights

uption-tainted exports. It therefore initiated a process of proposing standards
and engaging the ECAs of its member States in discussion in order to develop an
OECD-wide response.
Design
The Convention on Combating the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International
Business Transactions has been ratified by all 30 OECD member States
and seven non-member signatories. According to the Convention, bribing foreign
public officials to obtain export or investment contracts is a crime. Contracts
obtained through bribery are invalid or subject to invalidation. Before the entry
into force of the Convention in February 1999, bribing foreign officials was not
illegal in many exporting countries. In fact, it was often tax-deductible.
Under the Convention, the States parties have committed to taking effective
measures to deter, prevent and combat such bribery and to deny any subsidies
or other public advantages to those who commit it. The Convention established
the Working Group on Bribery, which examines the conformity of each party’s
anti-bribery laws with the Convention and their effectiveness in practice. The
Working Group also issues recommendations and country reports on each State
party. Furthermore, in 1997, the Council of OECD issued the Revised Recommendation
on Combating Bribery in International Business Transactions with a
view to denying public subsidies and other advantages to companies that engage
in bribery and disqualifying them from participating in public procurement.
In 2000, in an effort to address the concrete challenge of implementing the Anti-
Bribery Convention in business transactions benefiting from official export credit
and insurance support, the OECD Working Party on Export Credits and Credit
Guarantees issued an Action Statement on Bribery and Officially Supported Export
Credits. The Action Statement urged ECAs to: (i) inform exporters of the legal consequences
of bribery in international transactions; (ii) invite a declaration from the
exporter stating that the contract to be guaranteed or insured has not been obtained
through bribery or corruption; (iii) refuse to approve credit or other support where
there is credible evidence of bribery; and (iv) take appropriate action against a
company whose bribery has been proved after credit has been provided, such as
denying further payments, demanding a refund of sums provided, and referring
relevant evidence to national law enforcement authorities.
Implementation
In 2002, the Working Party carried out a survey of measures taken to combat
bribery in officially supported export credits. Transparency International also
canvassed its national chapters in OECD member States and received similar
feedback, which it reported to the Working Party.
The survey covers the measures that ECAs have put in place to fulfil their requirements
under the Action Statement, the procedures that they have established to
deal with suspected bribery and details of what their actual experiences with
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