Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed grave concern over Bangladesh’s leading foreign trade partners failing to enforce action against foreign bribery.
Referring to its report titled “Exporting Corruption,” TIB alerted the government about risks of huge losses of various types, especially increased money laundering, a press release said on Tuesday.
It has also called upon foreign trade partner countries to strengthen laws and enforcement systems.
“it is shocking that the biggest global exporters are showing the worst track records of compliance of their own pledges against foreign bribery. The poorest performers include China, Japan, India, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, Canada and Mexico, many of whom are Bangladesh’s largest trade and investment partners,” TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said.
“We are alerting our government, foreign trade entities and other stakeholders to take rigorous corruption prevention measures in foreign trade and investment.”
“Drawing the attention of diplomatic missions and other representatives of the relevant countries, we also call upon them to take concrete actions against foreign bribery as they have committed under UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, as applicable,” he said
The report (https://www.transparency.org/en/projects/exporting-corruption) found enforcement against foreign bribery shockingly low among half of G20 countries.
The report mentioned that fewer of the world’s biggest exporters are actively investigating and punishing companies paying bribes abroad.
The study, “Exporting Corruption 2020: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention”, conducted bi-annually by the TI Secretariat in Berlin, found that active enforcement against foreign bribery significantly decreased since 2018, the release said.
mj/
