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The Phase 2 Report on Portugal by the Working Group on Bribery evaluates and makes recommendations on Portugal’s implementation of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and related instruments. Although Portugal has engaged in significant legislative efforts to implement the Convention, no investigation of foreign bribery has yet made it past the stage of preliminary investigation. The Report notes some problems and identifies areas where additional efforts are necessary. In particular, measures are urgently needed to raise awareness of foreign bribery among relevant actors in both the public and private sectors.

A more proactive and focused approach is also required in order to ensure that all credible indications of foreign bribery are detected and investigated. In this regard, Portugal should enhance reporting obligations within relevant agencies and organizations of the public service and the accounting and auditing professions so that suspicions of foreign bribery are channelled to appropriate authorities swiftly and systematically. Additional training, guidance and resources could also help. Regarding the corporate sector, Portugal needs to start reaching out to Portuguese companies exporting and investing abroad in order to encourage the development of strategies for the prevention and detection of foreign bribery.

The Report also stresses Portugal’s obligation to provide for an autonomous definition of the notion of foreign officials in order to cover the full scope of the application of the Convention. In the same vein, the Working Group recommends that Portugal take remedial action to disallow and forbid confidential, undisclosed expenditures for the purpose of effective implementation of the prohibition of foreign bribery under Portuguese law. The tolerance granted by Portuguese law towards such confidential expenditures facilitates the non-disclosure of bribes paid abroad and the concealment of the illegal nature of the services contracted.

The Report also highlights a number of positive aspects in Portugal’s fight against foreign bribery, including the existence of law enforcement units specialised in fighting corruption and other economic and financial crimes, the provision of a broad range of investigative techniques to law enforcement authorities, regular use of anonymously received information for triggering investigations into corruption offences, and a developed and responsive system to handle MLA and extradition requests. A wide variety of sanctions, including debarment from the right to bid in public tenders and confiscation, is also available for punishing natural and legal persons found guilty of foreign bribery, even though the effectiveness of these sanctions in practice remains to be tested.

The Report, which reflects findings of experts from Brazil and the Netherlands, was adopted in March 2007 by the OECD Working Group on Bribery along with recommendations, which appear in the last section of the report. The Report is based on the laws, regulations and other materials supplied by Portugal, and information obtained by the evaluation team during its on-site visit to Lisbon. During the five-day on-site visit on 2-6 October 2006, the evaluation team met with representatives of Portuguese government agencies, the private sector, civil society and the media. Within one year of the Group’s approval of the Report, Portugal will report orally to the Working Group on the steps that it will have taken (or plans to take) to implement the Working Group’s recommendations. A further report in writing to the Working Group within two years will give rise to a publicly-available evaluation by the Working Group of Portugal’s implementation of the recommendations.