The OECD Working Group on Bribery regrets that Austria has not had a conviction of bribing foreign public officials despite a number of allegations, 13 years after ratifying the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. However, enforcement appears to be picking up, with one case being tried, two more cases soon to be tried, and four ongoing investigations.

Promoting anti-corruption compliance measures, to prevent corrupt acts before they take place and to properly address them when they do, and encouraging collective action and sectoral initiatives to share best practices and expertise should be a priority, said OECD Secretary-General in Moscow.

The OECD has released a study to help all countries understand and address the risks of sales suppression software. It describes some of the most common electronic sales suppression techniques and shows how these methods can be detected by tax auditors. The report also considers the approaches already adopted by countries in combating this risk and highlights a number of best practices.

The Czech government must urgently engage with the private sector to raise awareness, says a new OECD report. The awareness of the Czech foreign bribery offence remains regrettably low among companies, despite the recent adoption of a comprehensive corporate liability regime that holds Czech companies liable for this crime.

Portugal’s enforcement of its foreign bribery laws has been extremely low. Not a single prosecution has resulted from 15 allegations of Portuguese companies bribing foreign officials in high-risk countries.

The current Polish framework for fighting foreign bribery is still inadequate to fully meet foreign bribery risks resulting from Poland’s growing economy, says a new OECD report.

Costa Rica adhered today to OECD legal instruments on Internet governance and international business conduct, demonstrating its willingness to align its policies to best practices in these areas and work together with the Organisation.

Georgia has achieved significant progress in reducing corruption over the past decade. To build on this progress, the Government should focus on strengthening its professional civil service and ensure independence of the judiciary, according to a new OECD report.

This report looks at the issue of tax crime in the fisheries sector, including frauds over taxes on profit and earnings, customs duties, VAT and social security, with examples from real cases.

This Forum took stock of the key challenges and trends in regulating money in politics; identify emerging risks and opportunities; shape a common understanding of the policy options ahead and trade-offs in enhancing fairness, integrity and transparency in decision making including in the realm of political finance; and mobilise partners to work together and promote synergies in the future agenda.

How can we earn back the trust of young people? Improving openness, transparency, accountability, and access to information is essential. On the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day and Transparency International’s 20th Anniversary, the OECD and Transparency International are inviting young people for a discussion about how to push the integrity agenda forward together.

Ireland should increase its resources to detect and investigate foreign bribery more efficiently. Resources have, in recent years, been largely devoted to investigating non-bribery cases in the financial sector. Ireland has not prosecuted a foreign bribery case in the twelve years since its foreign bribery offence came into force, and law enforcement has taken few proactive steps to investigate allegations.

Latvia has taken an important step on the road to OECD membership by completing the process to become a member of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Latvia will become the 41st Party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention on 30 May 2014.

Estonia’s framework for combating foreign bribery may be inadequate to efficiently tackle rising foreign bribery risks resulting from its increasingly export-intensive economy.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery supports Spain’s efforts to further reform its Penal Code to bring its anti-bribery law into line with its international obligations under the OECD Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.

Due to serious concerns about the extremely low level of enforcement of Japan’s offence of bribing foreign public officials – just three prosecutions since 1999 – the OECD Working Group on Bribery recommended in December 2013 that Japan establish an Action Plan to organise police and prosecution resources to be able to proactively detect, investigate and prosecute cases of foreign bribery by Japanese companies.

Whistleblowing is an essential element for safeguarding the public interest and for promoting a culture of public accountability and integrity. The majority of OECD countries have recently passed legislation protecting whistleblowers and yet, despite being high on the agenda, successful whistleblowing stories are rare.

Based on the OECD-UNODC-World Bank Anti-Corruption Ethics and Compliance Handbook, this webcast organised by KPMG offered an opportunity for attendees to learn about and understand the value of anti-corruption and ethics compliance best practices and how to use them to enhance their programmes.

8-10 October 2014, Paris, France: Discussions at this meeting will focus on implementing the Istanbul Anti-Corruption Action Plan; monitoring reports for Armenia and Kazakhstan; and, progress reports from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Brazil must build on the positive momentum started with its new Corporate Liability Law and its first indictments in one foreign bribery case to investigate and prosecute more proactively foreign bribery.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery invited public comments on the next phase of country monitoring under the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention between 5 November and 1 December 2014. The call for comment is now closed.

Spain has created a strong system to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, but improvements are needed in certain key areas, according to a new report by the Financial Action Task Force.

Spain has created a strong system to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, but improvements are needed in certain key areas, according to a new report by the Financial Action Task Force.

On the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day, this Working Group on Bribery consultation with the private sector and civil society focused on the development of the Phase 4 evaluation process of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

The OECD welcomed the legislative package on democratic regeneration recently approved by the Spanish Parliament in order to fight corruption and promote both integrity and transparency in political activities and institutions.

Widespread corruption continues to be a major challenge for Kyrgyzstan’s development, despite efforts to streamline its anti-corruption policy and strengthen the institutional framework since 2012.

This cross-country report on prevention of public sector corruption analyses the preventive measures that have proven to be effective and successful in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The review focuses on twenty-one countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and includes examples from OECD countries.

Israel is not sufficiently proactive in detecting and investigating foreign bribery, with no prosecutions over the past 7 years, despite 14 allegations of foreign bribery involving Israeli individuals or companies. The OECD Working Group on Bribery is, however, encouraged by the recently-opened investigations, and will pay close attention to how these evolve.

Vast amounts are lost to illicit financial flows, including tax evasion, money laundering, bribery and corruption. These crimes threaten the strategic, political and economic interests of both developed and developing countries. In a world of limited resources and increasing complexity, it is essential for government authorities to work closely together in a “whole of government” approach to best address these challenges.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery will release a review of Colombia’s efforts to fight foreign bribery on Wednesday 21 October 2015 at 09.00 Bogota time/16.00 CET.

Colombia needs to improve its capacity to investigate foreign bribery by establishing an effective corporate liability regime, improving coordination between its numerous agencies and more rigorously training law enforcement, according to a new report by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

Uzbekistan has adopted its first anti-corruption action plan and established an anti-corruption coordination commission. Nevertheless corruption is widespread in Uzbekistan and remains a key obstacle for business.

This report takes stock of corporate practices tying business integrity considerations into corporate governance frameworks, strategy and operations. It also assesses what factors influence business decisions to implement business integrity measures in practice. This report is a timely response to a succession of disturbing corporate scandals to which no industry or country appears to be immune.

Bribery in international business undermines good governance and economic development, perpetuates poverty and distorts international competition.

The international community should call time on all remaining holdouts who have yet to implement internationally agreed tax transparency standards, OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría said in a new report to the G20.

A high-level Working Group mission will visit Buenos Aires on 26-27 April 2016 and meet senior Argentine government officials.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Transactions has repeatedly over 15 years urged Argentina to strengthen its efforts to fight corruption and foreign bribery. During that time, the Working Group has recommended that Argentina change its laws to hold companies liable for corruption and to extend jurisdiction to Argentines who commit foreign bribery overseas.

Further structural reforms are needed to help the business sector boost productivity growth and overcome the key challenges of sluggish investment in advanced economies and excess capacity in emerging economies, according to a new OECD report.

A high-level Working Group mission will visit Tokyo on 29-30 June 2016 and meet senior Japanese government officials.

The OECD and the Greek Government, with the support of the European Commission, today launched a collaboration project to strengthen Greece’s action plan to fight corruption.

Ukraine has made considerable progress in the area of anti-corruption reform but faces significant challenges to implement some important tools for combating corruption, according to a recent OECD report.

This OECD expert workshop will bring together experts to assess available data and methodologies to calculate both Total Factor Productivity and Environmentally Adjusted Total Factor Productivity for the aggregate agricultural sector.

Azerbaijan has made progress in preventing corruption in several sectors, such as public services delivery, traffic police and public education, and reforms have started in customs and business licencing. However, serious and complex corruption challenges have yet to be tackled, says a new OECD report.

New guidance from the AfDB and the OECD will help African companies of all sizes set up measures to prevent bribery and improve the quality of corporate compliance and anti-bribery policies.

This Working Group on Bribery consultation with the private sector and civil society will focus on how best to follow-up on OECD Anti-Bribery Ministerial Meeting.

New international guidance on fighting corruption in the development sector goes into effect today, backed by more than 40 countries, with progress on agreed recommendations to be monitored by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.

This stocktaking report first presents a chronology of how systems for the liability of legal persons have evolved among the 41 Parties to the Anti-Bribery Convention. It then presents a “mapping” of the features of these systems for the 41 Parties.

Following on from the London Anti-Corruption Summit which took place in May 2016, the OECD and the International Bar Association (IBA) have agreed to form a task force to develop professional conduct standards and practice guidance for lawyers involved in establishing and advising on international commercial structures and recommended actions for governments.

Finland has proactively investigated seven allegations of Finnish individuals or companies paying bribes to foreign public officials since 1999 but needs to address its discouragingly high acquittal rate.

Some 16 years after joining the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, Argentina remains in serious non-compliance.