Doubt cast on SA’s anti-graft commitment

The study comes as SA is poised to sign a comprehensive anti-bribery pact with the world’s top trading nations, notes the Sowetan. The pact is known as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Convention on the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. ‘Because the OECD has highly-rated normative standards, including peer review, the benefits of signing are two-fold – investors have a high regard for the convention and it could lead to more direct foreign investment,’ said Ishara Bodasing, an anti-corruption specialist at the Department of Public Service and Administration. ‘The other is tapping into the research and technical expertise of the OECD.’ The convention commits 34 signatory countries – all 30 OECD members and four nonmembers, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria and Chile – to adopt common rules to punish companies and individuals who engage in bribery. Unisa professor of international law, Andre Thomashausen, said signing the convention would increase international credibility. ‘There are accusations that South African companies, especially when entering the African market, don’t practise what they preach,’ said Thomashausen. Full Sowetan report

SA is failing to meet its obligations under another convention. It is one of the nine African countries that have yet to fully implement international anti-corruption conventions. According to detailed country studies issued by Transparency International (TI), Algeria, Burundi, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, SA, Togo, and Uganda have legal gaps with regards to the provisions of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption and Related Offences. A press release notes that TI chapters have monitored implementation since the AU Convention came into force on August 5 2006. ‘Implementation now must be the top priority,’ said Akere Muna, vice-chair of TI’s board of directors. ‘The AU Convention provides a very useful template to guide such a process. In concert with civil society, TI will continue to lobby governments and legislators on how best to cope with the obvious challenges posed by this process. These legal studies provide useful guidance at the county level as a blueprint for reform.’ TI press release View the studies