OECD releases new anti-corruption toolkit
A new OECD toolkit to tackle corruption can now be used by governments around the world.
The tool specifically aims at the mining, oil and gas industries and provides evidence-based analysis to better understand how corruption works.
The tool called ‘Typology of risks, mitigation measures and incentives in the extractive chain’ examines the sophisticated patterns to channel corrupt payments, and covers a broad spectrum of inter-connected policy areas, including licensing, procurement, tax issues and public financial management.
It also provides practical options to tackle corruption risks at both the public and private levels and calls for collective action that can be undertaken across OECD and non-OECD countries, extractive companies and civil society.
Drawing from an analysis of 131 concluded and ongoing corruption cases across different jurisdictions, the typology maps out the schemes of corruption, and vehicles used to corrupt. The typology shows how illegal payments are channelled, disguised through offshore transactions and complex corporate structures, often involving shell companies that make detecting and sanctioning corruption more difficult.
Offences listed in the typology include bribery of foreign officials, embezzlement, misappropriation and diversion of public funds, abuse of office, trading in influence, favouritism and extortion, bribery of domestic officials, and facilitation payments.
According to the typology, corruption may arise at any point along the extractive value chain: from awarding the rights to conduct extraction operations to revenue collection, spending and social investment.
The toolkit was released at the 2016 OECD Integrity Forum held in Paris last week.
Angel Gurría, secretary-general of the OECD, told the conference that recent revelations like those uncovered by the Panama Papers “show how far-reaching the issue of integrity violations has become” and reveal “how opaque corporate structures, which hide their true beneficial owners, can facilitate corruption payments, but also tax evasion, fraud, embezzlement of state-owned assets and money laundering.”
These scandals, he added, are a “wake-up call for the international community to step up efforts to strengthen global governance against these blights on our economies and societies.”
Gurría said that one high-risk area for corruption is public procurement, which represents a substantial share of world trade flows, amounting to one trillion euros per year.
According to OECD analysis, 57% of concluded foreign bribery cases between 1999 and 2014 involved public procurement.
“We need a stronger focus on increasing integrity in the procurement of goods and services if we are to win the battle against corruption in cross-border trade,” he said.
Click here to download the new OECD toolkit
About Winnie Agbonlahor
Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.
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