The OECD Working Group on Bribery decided at its October 2024 meeting to cancel a high-level mission scheduled for 15-16 October to Budapest, after the Government of Hungary was unable to secure sufficient representation of Ministers and senior officials for the meeting. This is the first time a high-level mission has been cancelled.

The high-level mission decided on by the Working Group on Bribery in December 2023 was meant to address the Government of Hungary’s failure to make tangible progress in addressing long-standing recommendations, including several that date back to its Phase 3 evaluation in 2012. These recommendations relate to the Government of Hungary’s lack of understanding of foreign bribery risk exposure, absence of strategy for proactively detecting and investigating foreign bribery cases, inadequate time to apply investigative measures and lack of legal clarity in relation to corporate responsibility for foreign bribery. The Working Group also remains seriously concerned about Hungary’s low level of foreign bribery enforcement.

A high-level mission is one of a series of possible measures the Working Group can take in cases of continued failure to adequately implement the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention under the Working Group’s monitoring procedures for its fourth round of mutual evaluations under the Convention. The Working Group, at its October 2024 plenary meeting, decided to implement additional measures for the Government of Hungary to re-engage at the appropriate level and to introduce a draft plan of proposed steps to address the specific deficiencies identified by the Working Group. Further, the Working Group on Bribery will continue to assess the situation in Hungary at its upcoming plenary meeting.

For further information, journalists are invited to contact the OECD Media Office (+33 1 45 24 97 00).

For more information on the implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention in Hungary please visit: https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sub-issues/fighting-foreign-bribery/hungary-country-monitoring.html.

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