THE OECD
Working Group on Bribery has asked France, through a series of concrete
recommendations, to intensify its actions to fight the bribery of foreign
public officials and undertake important reforms.
In October 2014, the Working Group welcomed several significant reforms,
including: the establishment of a new National Financial Prosecutor; the
end of individual instructions from the Minister of Justice to prosecutors;
protection to all whistleblowers; the possibility for anti-corruption organisations
to bring civil party claims; and, a substantial increase in criminal sanctions
for the foreign bribery offence. Despite these efforts, the Working Group
considers that France is insufficiently in compliance with the Anti-Bribery
Convention not having implemented a significant number of the 33 recommendations
made by the Working Group.
At the time of the adoption of these recommendations, French authorities
committed, through a statement by their Minister of Justice, to adopt other
measures, including decisive changes to their criminal policy. However, reforms
which would have given public prosecutors the necessary statutory guarantees
to exercise their functions without undue political influence which is required
for the proper administration of justice, did not materialise. Furthermore,
no reform in this respect is currently under consideration. Other anticipated
amendments that are not envisaged include, reforms to ensure that the law
on defence secrecy and the so-called « blocking statute » do not create an
obstacle to investigations and prosecutions in foreign bribery cases. In
addition, there are still no amendments to the statute of limitations and
no criminalisation of trading in influence directed towards a foreign public
official.
The Working Group has requested France to persist in prosecuting the offence
of foreign bribery. While acknowledging that 24 new cases have been opened
since October 2012, the Working Group remains concerned by the lack of proactivity
of the authorities in cases which involve French companies in established
facts or allegations of foreign bribery. To this day, no French company has
yet been convicted for foreign bribery in France, whereas French companies
have been convicted abroad for that offence, and the sanctions for convictions
of natural persons have not been dissuasive.
While acknowledging the progress made, the Working Group expresses serious
concerns for France’s limited efforts to comply with the OECD Convention
on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business
Transactions, and strongly encourages France to pursue the reforms which
were previously announced and remain necessary.
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