The 37-country OECD Working Group on Bribery, in the context of its regular cycle of reviews, has just completed a review of Slovenia’s enforcement of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
The Working Group encourages the Slovenian authorities to support the coordination and implementation of anti-foreign bribery measures by the Commission, or any other independent body charged with preventing corruption. The other main recommendations of the OECD Working Group are that Slovenia should:
* Enhance the expertise and resources available to police and prosecutors to fight complex economic crimes; and ensure that companies implicated in crimes are held liable;
* Streamline pre-trial procedures and reduce court delays;
* Work with companies to develop better strategies for the prevention and detection of foreign bribery;
* Ensure that the law criminalises bribery through intermediaries and bribery for acts not falling within the foreign official’s regular duties.
The Working Group also highlighted positive aspects of Slovenia’s efforts to fight foreign bribery. The country has developed an effective system for responding to requests from other countries for information, and law enforcement authorities actively use a range of special investigative techniques in economic crime investigations. The Slovenian export credit institution is making on-going efforts to comply with the most recent OECD standards in deterring and detecting foreign bribery, and the Slovenian authorities continue to fine tune the anti-money laundering reporting system.
