Canada has fallen from ‘Moderate’ to ‘Limited’ enforcement of the Corruption of Foreign and Public Officials Act, placing it at the back of the pack of OECD countries on foreign bribery enforcement as highlighted in a new Transparency International’s Exporting Corruption Report 2018: Assessing Enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention (linked here).
TI’s 2018 report measures 44 jurisdictions that account for 65 per cent of world exports. The report ranks countries into four enforcement categories of ‘Active’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Limited’ and ‘Little/No Enforcement’.
Canada dropped from Moderate to Limited Enforcement namely due to the miniscule number of cases commenced between 2014-2017. In that time, Canada only commenced four foreign bribery cases and concluded one (upholding an earlier 2013 conviction on appeal).
“This is the second report this year that highlights Canada’s poor performance in upholding global anti-corruption obligations”, said Transparency International Canada Executive Director, Alesia Nahirny. Ms. Nahirny referred to the 2018 TI report ‘Leaders or Laggards’ that placed Canada at the bottom of G20 members adhering to the 2014 principles on beneficial ownership transparency.
“We’ve fallen behind and need to play catch up on a number of anti-corruption fronts. Canadians want us to be leaders with respect to the fight against corruption at home and abroad and we can no longer rest only on our good reputation. The inadequacies in our enforcement system can no longer be ignored,” said Ms. Nahirny.
In Canada, systemic challenges, including insufficient coordination between investigators and prosecutors and a slow mutual legal assistance process, continue to play a role in the overall insufficient enforcement of white-collar crimes in Canada. There is also a lack of clear processes for voluntary disclosure of potential offences by companies, something which may be remedied by the proposed Remediation Agreement Regime.
“This ranking isn’t just bad for Canada’s international standing, but it’s further evidence that Canada is not looking at fighting corruption holistically as part of our foreign policy including international development and security”, said James Cohen, Director, Programmes and Engagement at TI Canada.
If Canada is truly committed to fighting corruption, it must do much better. We must improve CFPOA enforcement to demonstrate that Canada is serious about corruption. To begin, we need to fix longstanding structural issues with our various law enforcement agencies, adequately fund agencies responsible for enforcement, and clarify procedures for companies seeking to right wrongs and to encourage voluntary disclosures.
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