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The aim of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions is to prevent bribery in international business transactions by requiring OECD countries to criminalise the act of bribing foreign public officials.

The Convention came into force in 1999. It comprises two parts: binding commitments provided by the Convention, as well as provisions set out in its 1997 Recommendations. Signatories, who include all 30 OECD members as well as 5 non-members, accept the provisions of both.

The OECD Convention only covers the conduct of the person or enterprise offering or making the bribe and does not cover bribes paid to private persons or bribes paid to public officials for reasons other than for obtaining or retaining business or other improper advantage in international business transactions. As such, the focus of the OECD Convention is extremely narrow.

The Convention's primary effect is to make the bribing of a foreign public official by OECD multinational companies a criminal offence. This was not previously the case for many countries. The specific implications of the national legislation vary from country to country but whilst the OECD is aiming for functional equivalence, it is clear that some national legislation goes further than others with the UK legislation, enacted in 2002, outlawing the use of facilitations payments (a category that was actually exempted in the text of the Convention).

ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS

An important element of the Phase 2 review is the involvement of trade unions, business and civil society. Their consultation is co-ordinated by the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC), the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC), the International Chamber of Commerce and Transparency International. Collectively these 4 organisations represent a wide spectrum of view points.

The aim is for these organisations to jointly engage in a consultation meeting that aims to help hold government to account and ensure that the OECD monitoring process benefits from this independent input.

MONITORING

The OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions is responsible for monitoring compliance with the Convention. This process is divided into two stages:

Phase 1: began in April 1999 and aimed to review the adequacy of domestic legislation in view of the binding commitments of the Convention;

Phase 2: is on-going throughout the period 2001-2006 and aims to assess the adequacy of a range of institutional measures (other than legislation) put in place to support the rules and laws of the Convention.

Phase 2 is much broader in focus than Phase 1. It includes an assessment of compliance with non-criminal aspects of the 1997 Revised Recommendations.

Phase 2 monitoring comprises the following stages:

1. Completion of questionnaire: OECD governments are required to complete a standard questionnaire, as well as to answer country-specific questions based on the findings of Phase 1;

2. In-country reviews: a review panel undertakes country visits to hold meetings with government departments, as well as other key stake-holders – including trade unions;

3. Preparation of a preliminary report; the review team prepares a preliminary report which contains a set of recommendations for action to be submitted to the government;

4. Consultation on the report: the OECD Working Group on Bribery discusses the report;

5. Adoption of a country report: the OECD Working Group on Bribery adopts the country report