Australia slips in international anti-corruption rankings

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ABUD: Transparency International says many governments simply aren't putting enough effort into curbing bribes. They recently released an annual report that evaluates the efforts member countries are making to uphold the OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention. Australia comes out in the bottom category, criticised for carrying out little or no practical enforcement against bribery offenses by national businesses operating overseas. That's a category shared by 21 OECD countries, as diverse as Turkey, Brazil and Canada. Only four countries are in the top tier, cited for active enforcement, with eleven in the middle with moderate enforcement. Michael Ahren from Transparency's Australian chapter, says if enforcement doesn't both improve and become more uniform across countries, the Anti-Bribery Convention runs the risk of irrelevance.

AHREN: Conventions like this can't afford to fail in my view, t hen it becomes one of those international conventions which are more valuable on paper than it is in practice.

ABUD: Mr. Ahren says especially over the decades prior to the convention, multinational corporations have helped bribery and corruption become a much worse problem in especially developing countries.

AHREN: What happened was as the multinational corporations especially out of the US and Europe went abroad to countries which were vulnerable then the scale of the bribes increased, greedy officials would demand more from foreign investors.

ABUD: Mr. Ahren says this was particularly a problem in the resources sector, and distorted several national economies. The Transparency International report looks at how many foreign investment corruption cases have gone to court - and how many have resulted in convictions. While not specifically including bribes, Australia's biggest overseas corruption case is the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal and the Australian Wheat Board. Six cases are in the civil courts, but as Mr. Ahren points out, none have so far resulted in convictions - and the recommendations from the Royal Commission into the affair haven't been followed up. The lack of results is what puts Australia in the bottom group. Countries like the US and Germany, which have both prosecuted several cases, serve as a clear contrast in the top category.A report last year by the Association of Certified and Chartered Accountants A-C-C-A, with thinktank NetBalance, looked at measures to counter bribery in Australia. NetBalance's Associate Director Ross Wyatt says Australia shouldn't be surprised to find itself down the bottom.

WYATT: While the company of the some of the countries that would be in that same group with might come as a shock to many people I think it does fall in line with many of the findings of research that we've conducted in the past. Companies are very very good in Australia at having policy and intent what we found was in most of their reporting very little following up of how it might be managed. The intent is strong, some of the implementation there's room for improvement.

ABUD: Ross Wyatt says the AWB scandal damaged Australia's reputation, and saw it slip down international corruption rankings. He says that the most ethically-committed companies are not only less at risk of criminal penalties - they're also more respected, and therefore more sustainable businesses. Transparency International/s Michael Ahrens says the Australian government has committed to taking action to curb bribery overseas but much more is needed.

AHREN:When I speak to business groups in Australia they say to me, no matter what the theoretic priority given to it, its not really seen to be active.