An Anti-Corruption Ethics and Compliance Programme for Business: A Practical Guide
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In the past decade, an international legal framework has been developed to tackle
corruption. is framework includes the United Nations Convention against
Corruption,
4
or the UNCAC, which entered into force in 2005 and has currently
167 parties, and the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Ocials
in International Business Transactions,
5
which entered into force in 1999 and includes
40States parties.
At the regional level, the international anti-corruption framework also includes the:
• Inter-American Convention Against Corruption,
6
which entered into force in 1997 and
whose Parties include the member countries of the Organization of American States;
• African Union’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption,
7
which
was adopted in 2003 and has 33 African members;
• Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption
8
(adopted in 1998)
and Civil Law Convention on Corruption
9
(adopted in 1999);
• European Union’s anti-corruption policy outlined in article 29 of the Treaty on
European Union and carried out via two main instruments: the Convention on
the Protection of the European Communities’ Financial Interests (1995) and the
Convention against Corruption Involving European Ocials or Ocials of
Member States of the European Union
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(1997).
ese instruments mandate that States parties criminalize and punish a variety of
corrupt practices. Relevant domestic laws have a direct impact on business, especially
in States parties to instruments that require the establishment of liability of legal
persons for corrupt acts.
Some of the international conventions mentioned above require holding legal persons
liable for corrupt practices (such as the UNCAC, the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention,
and the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption). Additionally, some
of these instruments expressly promote the adoption by businesses of compliance pro-
grammes and codes of conduct. e OECD Recommendation for further Combating
Foreign Bribery, adopted in 2009, asks Member countries to encourage companies to
develop and adopt adequate internal controls, ethics and compliance programmes or
measures for the purpose of preventing and detecting foreign bribery. In support of this
provision, the OECD issued a Good Practice Guidance on Internal Controls, Ethics, and
Compliance. e African Union Convention also requires States parties to establish
mechanisms to encourage participation by the private sector in the ght against unfair
competition, respect of tender procedures and property rights.
e World Bank’s sanctions system complements this international anti-corruption
framework. e Bank may issue a public letter of reprimand to the sanctioned party,
order its debarment or demand restitution of the ill-gotten gains to the government
or to the victim of the corrupt act. In addition to regular debarment, the Bank can
impose conditional non-debarment and debarment with conditional release.
4
www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CAC/index.html
5
www.oecd.org/investment/daf/anti-bribery/oecdantibriberyconvention.htm
6
www.oas.org/juridico/english/Treaties/b-58.html
7
www.africa-union.org/root/AU/Documents/Treaties/Text/Convention%20on%20Combating%20
Corruption.pdf
8
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Treaties/Html/173.htm
9
http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/174.htm
10
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:41997A0625%2801%29:EN:HTML