Estonia should tackle corrupt foreigners - OECD

Jul 04, 2008
By Mike Collier

Estonia needs to tackle bribery by foreigners in addition to the domestic corruption issues that it already addresses, according to a new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The altic nation has focused its anti-corruption efforts to date on domestic bribery only, says an OECD Working Group on Bribery. The Estonian public and private sectors accordingly have very low awareness of the foreign bribery offence and the OECD Convention.

The 37-country OECD Working Group on Bribery has just completed its Phase 2 review of Estonia's implementation of the OECD Convention on Combating the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. The Group concluded that absence of awareness of foreign bribery warrants strong measures to rectify the situation. There are also deficiencies in Estonia's laws on foreign bribery and on corporate liability for such crimes, the OECD says.

The main recommendations of the Working Group are that Estonia should take measures in both the public and private sectors to prevent, detect, and raise awareness of foreign bribery; should broaden the criteria for imposing corporate criminal liability and that it should amend the foreign bribery offence in the Penal Code, including expressly covering bribery of foreign officials who perform legislative functions.

The Working Group also highlights several positive aspects in Estonia's fight against foreign bribery. Estonia's legislation expressly denies the tax deduction of bribe payments. Its officially supported export credit agency has taken several measures to prevent and raise awareness of foreign bribery. These range from requiring anti-corruption declarations from applicants to discussing with clients the risks of foreign bribery in certain overseas markets.

Estonian prosecutors and law enforcement agencies have an effective system for case assignment, co-ordination, and information sharing. Shortly before the adoption of the Phase 2 report, Estonia took additional steps to raise awareness of foreign bribery within the tax authorities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Estonia's parliament adopted amendments to the Penal Code at the time the Working Group discussed the Phase 2 Report. The Report refers to but does not evaluate these amendments since the Group could not assess their practical application.


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