Canada, despite its shining image as a relatively corruption-free country, has taken little action to discourage its companies from engaging in bribes and other illicit activities overseas, according to statistics released here Tuesday.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development announced that 144 individuals and 77 companies have faced criminal sanctions since the OECD's anti-bribery convention was enacted in 1999.

It marked the first time the Paris-based policy think-tank, funded by 30 member governments including Canada, has revealed the level of enforcement activity by convention signatories.

The U.S., Germany, Italy and South Korea provided the bulk of the enforcement actions that have resulted in fines totalling more than $1.6 billion and prison terms for 40 individuals.

Only one conviction involved a Canadian company, and that occurred a year before an OECD monitoring group visited Canada in 2006 and expressed "surprise" that there have been so few prosecutions for a country so actively involved in global trade.

The OECD refused Tuesday to comment on the enforcement of individual countries, though it confirmed that it will visit Canada and five other signatories later this year and then file a report on progress.

Patrick Moulette, head of the OECD's anti-corruption division, said the number of prosecutions represents a "concrete achievement."

While the OECD won't single out any individual country for comment, he acknowledged that the "uneven" enforcement actions among signatories has been a source of criticism.

"Probably some countries need to do more."

Transparency International, the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, has consistently ranked Canada as the least corrupt country in its hemisphere.

But TI labelled Canada a "laggard" last year for failing to adequately enforce the OECD convention aimed at ensuring its companies aren't engaging in dirty deals abroad.

It warned that the convention could unravel if some countries are turning a blind eye to bribery, and urged the OECD to consider expelling some of the 38 signatories.

Moulette said that warning is overblown even though more than half the signatories haven't registered a single conviction.

"We're not at that level of danger." The single Canadian conviction occurred in 2005 when a company called Hydro Kleen pleaded guilty to contravening the Canadian Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA).

By Peter O'Neil
The Vancouver Sun
June 16, 2010

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