Bribery solicitation impacts businesses worldwide, giving rise to legal risks and operational delays. Solicitation discourages companies from operating in certain markets where the levels of corruption are high. In some cases, companies face the dilemma of accepting bribery solicitation requests to continue doing business, despite the risk of legal liabilities and reputational damage.
Reporting bribery solicitation is challenging. In most countries, companies are not legally obligated to report the misconduct of public officials. Moreover, reporting can result in retaliation at the place of operation or liability under the jurisdiction of companies' headquarters.
Through engagement with selected representatives from multinational enterprises in the Anti-Corruption Leaders Hub (ACLH), this workstream identifies safe and effective ways individual companies can report bribery solicitation incidents. These reporting channels may be provided by governments, civil society organisations, chambers of commerce or other stakeholders.
In addition to individual companies, the OECD engages other stakeholders such as chambers of commerce, business associations, OECD National Contact Points, civil society organisations, collective action initiatives, and government authorities that can play a role supporting companies faced with bribery solicitation.
Building on the provisions of the OECD 2021 Anti-Bribery Recommendation on the demand side of foreign bribery and the conclusions of the consultation on tackling bribery solicitation held on the margins of the 2024 OECD Global Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum, this workstream explores how companies can better respond and report bribery solicitation incidents and how government authorities and other relevant stakeholders can support them in doing the right thing.
