OECD Anti-Bribery Convention: Procedure of Self- and Mutual Evaluation - Country Monitoring Principles

Monitoring countries’ implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention is required by the Convention. Article 12 of the Convention and Article VIII of the Revised Recommendation set forth procedures for the self and mutual evaluation of the Parties.

The following outlines general issues of country monitoring agreed upon by the Working Group on Bribery at its 29 June – 1 July 1998 meeting.

Delegates agree that the monitoring procedure should conform to a number of general principles:

Purpose - The purpose of monitoring is to ensure compliance with the Convention and implementation of the revised Recommendation. Monitoring also provides an opportunity to consult on difficulties in implementation and to learn from the solutions found by other countries.

Effectiveness - Monitoring must be systematic and provide a coherent assessment of whether a participant has implemented the Convention and 1997 revised Recommendation.

Equal treatment - Monitoring must be fair and this means equal treatment for all participants. Monitoring performance is an exercise among peers who can be frank in their evaluations. The Secretariat has an important role in ensuring uniform application of the procedures.

Recommendation and Convention - The Recommendation and the Convention are very different instruments: the Convention contains detailed binding commitments in the field of criminal law; the Recommendation has a wider scope and is written in more general terms. Both are important elements of the activity to combat bribery in international business transactions. There are also important interconnections between the two instruments, for example, in the areas of accounting and money laundering.

Cost-efficient - The monitoring procedure should be efficient, realistic, concise and not overly burdensome. It is necessary, however, to ensure that monitoring is effective, since together with the Convention and the Recommendation, it guarantees the level playing field.

Co-ordination with the Council of Europe and other organisations - International organisations such as the Council of Europe and European Union, and the participants in them share the goal of combating corruption, though the scope of their respective efforts and their more specific objectives may differ. All participants want to avoid duplication of effort. Since the Council of Europe is launching a procedure to monitor implementation of its anti-corruption principles and instruments, particular efforts should be made to take its activities into account.

Public information - The 1997 revised Recommendation calls on the Working Group to provide regular information to the public on its work and activities and on implementation of the Recommendation. This general responsibility must be balanced against the need for confidentiality which facilitates frank evaluation of performance.