30/06/2011 - Norway has made significant progress in its efforts against the bribery of foreign public officials in recent years, according to a new OECD report. But more could be done to strengthen enforcement, including by focusing on the confiscation from companies of the proceeds of bribery.

The OECD Working Group on Bribery has just completed a review of Norway’s enforcement of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and related instruments.

The Working Group commends Norway for its strong commitment in fighting transnational bribery. In addition to the recommendation on confiscation, it also makes recommendations on ways to improve enforcement, which include the following:

• Ensure Økokrim, Norway’s economic crime authority, continues to proactively investigate and prosecute transnational bribery;
• Increase possibilities for the detection of bribery in international business deals, in particular by strengthening auditors’ obligations to report corrupt behaviour; and
• Improve the Norwegian Government’s capacity to debar companies sanctioned for transnational bribery, for example by providing a central point of access for information on these companies.

The Working Group highlighted additional positive aspects of Norway’s recent efforts and recognised the country’s determination to proactively root out corruption, through targeted mechanisms and measures to detect and sanction bribery. These include Økokrim’s specialised and well-resourced Anti-Corruption Teams; a robust legislative framework; enhanced possibilities of detection through, for instance, effective whistleblowing legislation or tax audits; as well as strong engagement with the private sector in the area of corporate compliance programmes.

The Working Group – made up of the 34 OECD Member countries plus Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Russia and South Africa – adopted Norway’s report under its third phase of monitoring. The Report, available at www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption, lists all the recommendations of the Working Group on pages 39-40, and includes an overview of recent enforcement actions and specific legal and policy features in Norway for combating the bribery of foreign public officials. As with other OECD Working Group members, Norway will submit a written report to the Working Group within two years, which will be the basis of a publicly-available Working Group evaluation of Norway’s implementation of the Phase 3 recommendations.

For further information, journalists are invited to contact Mary Crane-Charef, OECD Anti-Corruption Division Communications Officer, e-mail Mary.Crane-Charef@oecd.org; (33) 1 45 24 97 04.

For more information on OECD’s work to fight corruption, visit www.oecd.org/daf/nocorruption.