Luke Balleny
Colombia has become the latest country to be invited to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Working Group on Bribery, a precursor to joining the Paris-based organisation’s Anti-Bribery Convention.
OECD Deputy Secretary-General Richard Boucher was in Bogota on Tuesday where he signed an exchange of letters with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
“As it steps up its investment abroad, it’s important that Colombia has clearly made anti-corruption a top priority,” the OECD reported Boucher as saying at the signing ceremony.
“We are confident that Colombia’s accession to the Anti-Bribery Convention will not only strengthen its ability to fight corruption but it will also strengthen OECD efforts to stamp out bribery and create a level-playing field,” Boucher added.
Shortly after taking office in August 2010, President Santos vowed to make fighting corruption a top priority. The government has said it will pursue corrupt officials in the private and public sectors with the same zeal it uses to fight the country’s rebel groups.
The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention has been described as “the gold standard” of anti-bribery conventions by watchdog Transparency International and includes a rigorous peer-led monitoring and evaluation process to ensure that each country is fulfilling its obligations under the convention.
In addition to the OECD’s 34 member countries, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria and South Africa have also joined the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Russia was invited in May to join the Working Group on Bribery and is expected to formally join the convention imminently.
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