The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has criticized Israel for what it calls inadequate efforts to detect, investigate, and bring to justice people and companies in Israel involved in bribing officials in other countries. The criticism was contained in a special report on Israel published by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.
The report was written following an assessment of developments in Israel in recent years and the progress made in Israel's efforts to meet the standards of international conventions against bribery of foreign government officials. While the team praises the recent improvement in the government's efforts to combat the problem by establishing a special inter-ministerial team, it notes in a very critical tone that not a single case has been brought to trial for the past seven years, although there were suspicions of overseas bribery in 14 cases.
Most of the report focuses on how Israel is implementing the recommendations of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials. It particularly emphasizes what the OECD regards as insufficient efforts to investigate such cases. According to the report, two of the 14 cases, which involve defense industries, were closed due to the enforcement authorities' inability to obtain relevant information. The report therefore recommends that Israel step up its investigations and conduct them more aggressively, even when corporations are involved. It also recommends better training for police and officials dealing with bribery of public officials in foreign countries.
In addition, the report asserts that Israel should improve its detection capability through greater awareness among employees who might be exposed to such acts, and should encourage them to warn and notify the authorities of their suspicions. Israel is due to give the OECD within a year its own report on how it is enforcing the laws and regulations against bribery in foreign countries, and is scheduled to report within two years on how it is implementing the OECD's various recommendations for actions by the enforcement authorities in this area.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 25, 2015
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