Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Bribe Britannia / The Economist, 19 Dec 2006

http://digbig.com/4qjww
"Two steps back in the fight against corporate backhanders. In 1998 Britain ratified the OECD's convention against bribing foreign officials, but its commitment to the treaty has been half-hearted. Instead of passing comprehensive legislation to meet its new obligations, the government argued that Britain's existing laws against domestic corruption were sufficient. It was finally persuaded to ban explicitly the bribing of foreign officials by British citizens and companies, no matter where the offence took place, in the anti-terrorism act of 2001 .
But loopholes abound."