‘There is little to no enforcement in Turkey against companies bribing abroad’

* Image: Andrea Settimo/ Transparency International

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Rating the performance of 47 global exporters, including 43 countries that are signatories of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention, "Exporting Corruption 2020" research report has been shared by the Transparency International.

The progress report released by the organization aims to assess the enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.

"More than 20 years after the Convention was adopted, most countries still have a long way to go in meeting their obligations," the Executive Summary of the report has noted, adding that "active enforcement has, in fact, significantly decreased since the last report in 2018."

Evaluating "how well - or poorly - countries are enforcing the rules," the Exporting Corruption report has referred to Turkey among 19 countries with "little to no enforcement against companies bribing abroad."

The report has made the following observation: "There is little to no enforcement in Turkey against companies bribing abroad. While the country makes up 0.9 percent of global exports, it opened on investigation and no cases of foreign bribery between 2016 and 2019, and closed no cases with sanction."

In addition to Turkey, 18 other countries have been cited in this category of "little or no enforcement" against companies bribing abroad: China, Japan, South Korea, India, Mexico, Ireland, Russia, Belgium, Singapore, Poland, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Hungary, Finland, Slovakia, Peru and Bulgaria.

'Concerns about independence of judiciary'

According to the report, the OECD Working Group on Bribery (WGB) discussed sending a High-Level Mission to Turkey, "due to the concerns about the country's lack of progress in addressing weaknesses in its frameworks and enforcement frameworks."

Addressing the level of sanctions on a country basis within this context, the report has indicated the following:

"In Australia, Japan and Korea, sanctions are remarkably low, while legal provisions on sanctions for companies are inadequate in countries including Austria, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey."

The report has also noted that there are deficiencies in provisions on corporate liability in a series of countries, including Turkey: "There are also deficiencies in provisions on corporate liability, in countries including Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal and Turkey, as well as lack of criminal liability of companies in multiple countries and absence of guidelines for companies on an adequate prevention model, in countries including the Netherlands, Norway, Peru and Switzerland among others."

The report has also touched upon the "independence of the judiciary" in this context: "Concerns about the independence of judges or prosecutors have been raised in Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey." (SO/SD)