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 domesticbribery only, says an OECD Working Group onBribery. The Estonian public and private sectors accordingly have verylow awareness of the foreign bribery offence and the OECD Convention.
The37-country OECD Working Group on Bribery has just completed its Phase 2review of Estonia's implementation of the OECD Convention on Combatingthe Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International BusinessTransactions. The Group concluded that absence of awareness of foreignbribery warrants strong measures to rectify the situation. There arealso deficiencies in Estonia's laws on foreign bribery and on corporateliability 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 inthe Penal Code, including expressly covering bribery of foreignofficials who perform legislative functions.
The Working Groupalso highlights several positive aspects in Estonia's fight againstforeign bribery. Estonia's legislation expressly denies the taxdeduction of bribe payments. Its officially supported export creditagency has taken several measures to prevent and raise awareness offoreign bribery. These range from requiring anti-corruptiondeclarations from applicants to discussing with clients the risks offoreign bribery in certain overseas markets.
Estonianprosecutors and law enforcement agencies have an effective system forcase assignment, co-ordination, and information sharing. Shortly beforethe adoption of the Phase 2 report, Estonia took additional steps toraise awareness of foreign bribery within the tax authorities and theMinistry of Foreign Affairs.
Estonia's parliament adoptedamendments to the Penal Code at the time the Working Group discussedthe Phase 2 Report. The Report refers to but does not evaluate theseamendments since the Group could not assess their practical application.
