This year marks the 25th anniversary of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. On 17 December 1997, the Convention was signed and it came into force on 15 February 1999. 

With 46 countries onboard and a rigorous monitoring mechanism, the Convention is a powerful tool to combat foreign bribery in international business transactions. It has modified the global landscape for fighting economic and financial crime through international co-operation, by encouraging more transparent, fair and efficient global markets, and supporting good governance.

According to the OECD Trust Survey, 47.8% of people on average across 22 OECD countries, think that a high-level political official would grant a political favour in exchange for the offer of a well-paid private sector job.

Resources and institutional capacities are insufficient to ensure regulations are implemented in the intended manner. And a lack of monitoring, oversight and central data often makes it difficult to know the reality. These shortcomings in countries’ integrity frameworks mean countries are vulnerable to greater corruption risk, and integrity frameworks are not supporting countries’ responses to the most important issues as well as they should. 

On average across countries, 47.8% of respondents say it is likely that a high-level political official would grant a political favour in exchange for the offer of the prospect of a well-paid job in the private sector. This, in turn, may bias officials’ decision making away from most people’s interests and lead to inefficient policy outcomes. Indeed, less than one-third of respondents (30.4%) are confident that a high-level political official would refuse such an offer. Norway is the only country in which the share of respondents believing in the ethical behaviour of high-level officials is higher than the share of sceptical respondents.