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Major Exporters Taking ‘Little Action’ on Bribery

Major Exporters Taking ‘Little Action’ on Bribery

Los Angeles, CA – Corruption in trade “is undermining global development as contracts don’t go to the best suppliers, prices are being inflated to cover bribe payments, environmental requirements are not being enforced and taxes are not being collected,” says Germany-based Transparency International (TI).

As a result, it said, “the convention’s fundamental goal of creating a corruption-free level playing field for global trade is still far from being achieved.”

According to the anti-corruption watchdog says 22 countries exerted “little or no” energy in enforcing international anti-bribery laws last year.

According to TI, those countries involved account for 27 percent of world exports and almost 90 per cent of total foreign direct investment outflows.

The non-governmental government (NGO) said only four OECD countries were actively enforcing the anti-bribery convention – Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, and the U.S.

Among those with little or no enforcement, TI said, were Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Poland, Turkey, Denmark, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Chile and Israel.

Others, including France, Sweden, South Africa and New Zealand, were chided for exerting only “limited” enforcement of the convention.

The binding, international Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions was enacted by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1997.

Widely seen as an important instrument in the drive to curb global corruption, the treaty requires the 41 signatory countries to make foreign bribery a crime for which individuals and enterprises can be made responsible.

TI annually assesses compliance with an anti-bribery convention signed by 41 countries that prohibits bribes to win contracts, or dodge taxes and local laws.

The agency urged the world’s exporting countries to take a “tougher stance on bribery and provide adequate support, including staffing and funding for enforcement with rigorous OECD monitoring.”

11/03/2014

TRACE Expands into Ghana, Hungary and Turkey

Annapolis, MD – TRACE International, the global anti-bribery association, has expanded its worldwide presence with new partnerships announced in Ghana, Hungary, and Turkey.

The latest organizations to partner with TRACE are CommerceGhana, an organization committed to facilitating investment in Ghana; EuCham CEE, a private, non-governmental institution working to enhance the business environment for companies operating in Europe; and the Ethics and Reputation Society, or TEID, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a robust and ethical business culture in Turkey.

In the past 12 months, TRACE’s global footprint has expanded significantly, with a new on-the-ground presence in Dubai, Manila and New Delhi and new partnerships established with American Chambers of Commerce in Zambia and Libya and the Makati Business Club in the Philippines.

TRACE International is a non-profit membership association that pools resources to provide practical and cost-effective anti-bribery compliance solutions for multinational companies and their commercial intermediaries.

Founded in 2001, the association is one of the world’s leading non-profit organizations dedicated to anti-bribery compliance with hundreds of corporate members and thousands of intermediary members around the world.

06/23/2014