THE OECD
Working Group on Bribery has stated that Finland needs to take concrete
steps to educate Finnish Companies that they are criminally liable if
they, or their local agents or subsidiaries on their behalf, bribe public
officials when doing business abroad.
A
Review by the Working Group has led to the following recommendations:
+ amend
the Criminal Code definition of foreign public official to include a person
holding a legislative office in a foreign country;
+ establish
corporate liability for accounting and auditing offences;
+ introduce
measures to facilitate reporting by public officials to law enforcement authorities
of suspected acts of foreign bribery; and
+ address
the lack of whistleblower protection by introducing mechanisms to ensure
that public and private sector employees who report in good faith and on
reasonable grounds are protected from discriminatory or disciplinary action.
The Working Group
also highlighted positive aspects of Finland’s efforts
to fight foreign bribery. These include: promising enforcement efforts, with
six cases of suspected foreign bribery currently under investigation in Finland;
a proactive approach to obtaining the cooperation of relevant foreign authorities
in asset recovery; and bilateral anti-corruption work with China and the Russian
Federation.
Finland’s
report is the first to be adopted by the Working Group under its new third
phase of monitoring.
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