Transparency International has called on the G8 summit to address the issue of corruption and to urge all OECD Countries to swiftly ratify the landmark OECD anti-corruption convention. While the leading industrialised countries with the exception of Italy and France have fully ratified the convention, almost 60 % of the other signatories have failed to do so yet. The OECD convention makes it a criminal offence to bribe a foreign public official. Eigen said that "Concrete anti-corruption action is imperative if world trade and investment is to be strengthened, if young and fragile democracies in the South and in Eastern Europe are to become secure, and if poverty in the world's poorest countries is to be reduced." The annual Corruption Perceptions Index has made it crystal clear that the abuse of public office by government officials in dozens of countries is a problem of dramatic proportions. It is imperative that the forthcoming Summit in Cologne, and the Finance Ministers' Summit in Frankfurt, strengthen concrete anti-corruption actions that respond to the legitimate outrage of tens of millions of people across the world whose incomes and hopes are being wrecked by corrupt public officials, abetted by bribe-paying corporations. Accordingly, TI, the non-profit anti-corruption organisation, calls on Summit leaders to recognise the critical linkages between curbing corruption, strengthening global commerce, building democracy and reducing poverty. And the TI movement, now active through national organisations in over 70 countries, calls on Summit leaders to consider the following specific actions:

1. To highlight the importance of the ratification on February 15, 1999 of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and of the related EU Convention of 1997 and to call upon those Summit nations - particularly Italy -, and thereafter all other nations, who have not yet ratified the Convention, to do so without further delay.

2. To pledge their fullest support in monitoring the implementation of the OECD Convention in order to ensure that firm action is taken to prosecute corporations that continue to pay foreign bribes to officials to secure contracts.

3. To promote efforts to ensure that the new round of international trade negotiations under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation, to be launched in Seattle later this year, explicitly highlights the trade-distorting nature of corruption and seeks international agreements to fight corruption in global trade and investment.

Countries that have failed to ratify the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions :

· Argentina · Australia · Austria · Belgium · Brazil · Czech Republic · Denmark · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Netherlands · New Zealand · Poland · Portugal · Slovak Republic · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Turkey

Status of ratification of major international Anti-Corruption Conventions by the G-8 states :

The only EU member state to have ratified the EU Convention on the fight against corruption involving officials of the European Communities or officials of Member States of the European Union is Finland.

Russia has indicated its interest in signing the OECD Convention which was agreed by the 29 OECD member states plus five other countries (Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Slovakia) in 1997. It is doubtful, however, whether the OECD will include Russia in its anti-corruption activities.

For further information or interviews ...

please contact:

Mr Carel Mohn, Press Officer, at the TI International Secretariat at tel. +49-30-343 8200 or
Mr Jeremy Pope, Executive Director, at our London office at tel. +44-171-610 1400

About Transparency International : Transparency International was founded in 1993. It is the only global non-governmental and not-for-profit organisation devoted solely to containing corruption and increasing government accountability. There are currently more than 60 National Chapters in all continents, and TI's International Secretariat is in Berlin, Germany. TI has played a key role in securing the entry into force of the OECD and OAS anti-corruption conventions.