Transparency International’s annual assessment of the enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention by member countries was released earlier today. The Report ranks countries’ enforcement efforts into four “grades”: active, moderate, limited and little/no enforcement.
As in prior years, the US leads the way with the highest number of investigations and prosecutions under its foreign corruption law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Other countries given the highest grade of “active enforcement” are Germany, the UK and Switzerland. However, of interest to Canadian companies, is the fact that Canada is one of only two countries to move up on the TI rankings, moving from “limited” enforcement in 2013 to “moderate” enforcement in 2014. This improvement in Canada’s grade is attributed to the significant number of cases being actively pursued by enforcement authorities, including moving a number of these investigations to criminal charges and court proceedings. Further, Canada’s 2013 amendments of its Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act were applauded by TI, who called them “major legislative reforms … which when taken together with the investigations, provide a good basis for (its) anti-corruption drive”. The full report can be viewed here.
Canadian companies operating abroad, or considering operating abroad, must be vigilant to remain in compliance with the requirements of the CFPOA. Gowlings has extensive experience developing and implementing practical corruption risk mitigation strategies around the world. We take a business-focused approach to preventing and detecting bribery.
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