Chile has made positive efforts to implement the Convention, but there has not been a single foreign bribery conviction. Chile did not sufficiently investigate several of the six foreign bribery allegations that have surfaced since 2001. Chilean embassies failed to alert prosecutors to these cases which were widely reported in the foreign media. Only one of the cases has been detected through domestic sources. Chile should improve its investigative and detection efforts.
The OECD Working Group on Bribery has just completed its report on Chile’s implementation of the Convention of Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and related instruments.
The Group made further recommendations to improve Chile’s fight against foreign bribery, including:
- Clarify its corporate liability law and the system for certifying corporate offence prevention models;
- Improve co-ordination and intelligence gathering;
- Raise awareness that prosecutors and police in foreign bribery cases should not be influenced by economic, diplomatic and other inappropriate considerations;
- Ease bank secrecy protection for foreign bribery investigations.
The report also highlighted positive aspects of Chile’s efforts to fight foreign bribery. Chile’s current efforts to improve its implementation of the Convention through proposed Penal Code reform are welcomed. Chile has also improved its foreign bribery offence, and introduced corporate liability and nationality jurisdiction to prosecute. Efforts to raise awareness of foreign bribery appear successful. Many Chilean companies have put in place certain measures to address foreign bribery, though some of these may not meet best practices and international standards. Chile has also taken steps to protect whistleblowers though more could be done, particularly in the private sector.
The Working Group on Bribery – made up of the 34 OECD Member countries plus Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Latvia, Russia and South Africa– adopted Chile’s report in its third phase of monitoring implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.
The Report lists all of the recommendations of the Working Group to Chile on pages 54-58, and includes an overview of recent enforcement actions and specific legal, policy and institutional features of Chile’s framework for fighting foreign bribery. As with other Working Group members, Chile will submit a written report to the Working Group within two years on steps it has taken to implement the new recommendations and on its enforcement actions. This report will also be made publicly available.
For further information, journalists are invited to contact the OECD Media Office.