TIB concerned at inaction against bribery in int’l trade, investment

Transparency International Bangladesh has expressed concern at the failure of taking action against bribery in international trade by Bangladesh and its leading trade and investment partners.

Referring to a report released by the Berlin-based TI Secretariat on October 11, on “Exporting Corruption 2022: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention”, the TIB called upon the defaulting countries to address weaknesses in their relevant laws and ensure stringent enforcement.

It has also alerted the government of Bangladesh of the need to play its due role to be vigilant and take all preventive measures against corrupt deals in foreign trade and investment.

The biennial report assesses the performance of 47 leading global exporters of which 43 are parties to the OECD Anti-bribery Convention and four other leading global exporters, e.g., China, India, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The TIB said 20 of the assessed countries which together account for nearly 40 per cent of annual global exports have taken little or no enforcement action against foreign bribery during the period of the survey.

Executive Director of TIB Iftekharuzzaman said, “What is most important for Bangladesh is the defaulting countries include some of the top trade and investment partners of Bangladesh like India, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. This must be treated as an alarm bell for Bangladesh.”

He said, “It is deeply disappointing that our trade and investment are so worryingly exposed to corruption due to continued failures of our partner countries, many of whom are ironically perceived to be ranked better than us as per most of the available internationally credible corruption indicators.”

He called upon the countries to practice what they preach, and ensure that their legal and institutional systems are strong and effective enough to be consistent with their international pledges.

“We call upon our government to be robustly vigilant to ensure that all measures are taken to prevent corruption-driven illicit deals in our international trade and investment relations,” he added

The report has ranked only Switzerland and US as ‘active enforcers’, though far from perfect. Countries in the lowest performer category include Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey and so on.