Summary: The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention establishes legally binding standards to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions and provides for a host of related measures that make this effective. It is the first and only international anti-corruption instrument focused on the ‘supply side’ of the bribery transaction. Within the CORE-project, it is relevant at least for WP19, education and training. The full review is presented in CORE1021. Source file at: http://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/ConvCombatBribery_ENG.pdf

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Document information: Convention on combatting bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. (2011). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The documents includes also following parts:

• Commentaries on the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials In International Business Transactions
• Recommendation of the Council for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
  • Annex I: Good Practice Guidance on Implementing Specific Articles of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
  • Annex II Good practice guidance on internal controls, ethics, and compliance
• Recommendation of the Council on Tax Measures for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
• Recommendation of the Council On Bribery and Officially Supported Export Credits
• Recommendation of the Development Assistance Committee on Anti-Corruption Proposals for Bilateral Aid Procurement
• OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises – Section VII

Summary of the document, including overall relevance for CORE: The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention establishes legally binding standards to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions and provides for a host of related measures that make this effective. It is the first and only international anti-corruption instrument focused on the ‘supply side’ of the bribery transaction. The 34 OECD member countries and seven non-member countries – Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Latvia, Russia, and South Africa – have adopted this Convention (Entry into force and OECD Anti-Bribery Convention: Status of Ratification).

The most CORE relevant part of the document is Good practice guidance on internal controls, ethics, and compliance. It highlights principles of risk assessment and viewpoint of the company in the process. “Effective internal controls, ethics, and compliance programmes or measures for preventing and detecting foreign bribery should be developed on the basis of a risk assessment addressing the individual circumstances of a company, in particular the foreign bribery risks facing the company (such as its geographical and industrial sector of operation). Such circumstances and risks should be regularly monitored, re-assessed, and adapted as necessary to ensure the continued effectiveness of the company’s internal controls, ethics, and compliance programme or measures”.

Companies should consider the following good practices (just to mention a couple of introduced practices):

• Ethics and compliance programmes or measures designed to prevent and detect foreign bribery, applicable to all directors, officers, and employees, and applicable to all entities over which a company has effective control, including subsidiaries, on, inter alia, the following areas: gifts, hospitality, entertainment and expenses, customer travel, political contributions, charitable donations and sponsorships, facilitation payments, and solicitation and extortion.
• Ethics and compliance programmes or measures designed to prevent and detect foreign bribery applicable, where appropriate and subject to contractual arrangements, to third parties such as agents and other intermediaries, consultants, representatives, distributors, contractors and suppliers, consortia, and joint venture partners (hereinafter “business partners”), including, inter alia, the following essential elements:
  • properly documented risk-based due diligence pertaining to the hiring, as well as the appropriate and regular oversight of business partners;
  • informing business partners of the company’s commitment to abiding by laws on the prohibitions against foreign bribery, and of the company’s ethics and compliance programme or measures for preventing and detecting such bribery; and
  • seeking a reciprocal commitment from business partners.

Cross-references:

• 2009 Recommendation on Tax Measures for Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
• OECD Recommendation on Bribery and Officially Supported Export Credits
• 1996 Recommendation on Anti-Corruption Proposals for Bilateral Aid Procurement
• OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
• Review of the OECD Anti-Bribery Instruments: Public Consultation
• Bribery and corruption awareness handbook for tax examiners and tax auditors

Full Citation: Convention on combatting bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. (2011). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/ConvCombatBribery_ENG.pdf

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