Heating Up North of the Border

In its July 2010 Progress Report on the Enforcement of the OECD Convention (here), Transparency International ("TI") called Canada one of its "most disappointing" findings given "little or no enforcement" of Canada's FCPA like-statute, the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act ("CFPOA")

Among other things, Canada was found to have an insufficient definition of a foreign bribery offense, jurisdictional limitations as to its statute, inadequacies in its enforcement system, and lack of awareness raising in the country as to foreign corruption issues.

The TI Report quoted Bruce Futterer (a TI Canada expert) as saying - “One is left with the impression that the enforcement of anti-bribery and foreign corruption legislation is not a high enough priority with the Canadian federal government and that more could be done both in terms of strengthening the existing legislation and allocating greater human and financial resources to the education and enforcement of the CFPOA.”

Against this backdrop, TI Canada's January 31st press release (here) caught my eye. Without providing a source, the release states as follows: "The recent revelation from the RCMP Sensitive Investigations and International Anti- Corruption Unit that 23 CFPOA investigations are underway means that, 'Canadian companies can no longer hide behind the world’s perception that business is done here in a completely ethical manner.'"

From little to no enforcement to 23 active investigations, that is big news north of the border.

For more see here.