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.
