03. April 08
Today, on April 3, the Government approved the draft Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure Amendment Act in order to fight international corruption.
Estonia joined the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions in 2005. According to Tanel Kalmet, the adviser to the Ministry of Justice and the author of the draft approved by the Government today, the developed countries of the world consider the bribery of foreign public officials in business transactions a crime which considerably damages free competition and violates good business practices. "If bribery is not considered an offence in a country or if it is not punishable there, and if an Estonian company bribes the public official of that country, the convention prescribes that the person who has given a bribe be tried for it in Estonia,” explained Kalmet.
“Although bribing a foreign public official has been declared a crime in Estonia for years, the evaluation visit of the OECD Working Group on Bribery showed that some provisions of the current penal law and proceedings may hinder the fight against the bribing of foreign public officials," Kalmet said. He added that the awareness in all sectors of the society of the fact that giving a bribe to a foreign public official is universally condemned by the developed countries and also punishable in Estonia needs to be improved.
“In order to remove the legislative shortcomings the Ministry of Justice prepared the draft Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure Amendment Act which will eliminate the hindrances in question,” Kalmet concluded.
The full and effective application of the convention in Estonia is one of the prerequisites to joining the OECD. The convention has been ratified or joined by 37 countries, i.e. in addition to all of the 30 OECD member states, by the candidate states Chile, Slovenia and Estonia, and also by Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Republic of South Africa. The other countries applying to become OECD members – Russia and Israel – must also join the convention in order to become a member.
