On Friday 01.10.2021, the 4th Phase of the Evaluation of the country by the OECD on the implementation of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials was completed. The National Transparency Authority coordinated the on-site evaluation process, which took place from 28.09.21 to 01.10.21 at the Authority's premises.
During the four days of work, a team of the OECD working group consisting of three Organisation’s staff, two evaluators from Korea and two from Lithuania (prosecutors and senior public officials) held a series of working meetings with more than eighty (80) representatives of public and private sector entities. Participants included prosecutors and judges, MPs, executives of private sector and public organisations, representatives of professional associations, chambers, academic institutions, banks, audit companies, as well as civil society organisations and journalists.
The first day's work (28 September) focused on the legislative and administrative improvements already implemented on the basis of the OECD's previous recommendations, the prevention policies and reporting lines adopted by the institutions on the offence of foreign bribery concerning public officials in business transactions, the protection of persons who report violations within an institution (whistleblowers), public procurement, as well as international development assistance programmes.
On the second day (29 September), issues relating to the detection and investigation of bribery of foreign public officials, the legal procedure for prosecution, the liability of legal persons and the development of mutual legal assistance requests were analysed.
On the third day (30 September), money laundering measures were discussed from the perspective of both supervisory authorities and banking institutions. Following this, three representatives of the Greek Parliament, Konstantinos Karagounis (Nea Dimokratia), Miltos Chatzigiannakis (SYRIZA) and Chara Kefalidou (KINAL), presented their views on measures to further enhance transparency and accountability and the importance of the rule of law for citizens.
- Specifically, Mr. Karagounis, MP of the New Democracy and member of the Special Permanent Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Greek Parliament, addressed an invitation to the OECD and the NTA for close cooperation between all stakeholders, aiming at the exchange of know-how on transparency, control and accountability issues, while he pointed out that significant progress has been made in this direction with the recent adoption of the Law on Internal Audit and the Integrity Advisor, which will be applied to the entire public sector, as well as with the regulation of lobbying activities, while he concluded by stressing that the Government continues to implement its reform programme
- For his part, Mr. M.Hatzigiannakis, MP of SYRIZA, Deputy Minister of Interior & Head of Local Government, stressed that the fight against corruption of foreign public officials is a key to improving the business environment, adding that the globalized economy and the new methods of committing such crimes make it increasingly difficult to tackle corruption. For this reason, transnational cooperation and, in particular, the use of new digital media can contribute to the fight against corruption of foreign public officials.
- Chara Kefalidou, MP of KINAL and Sectoral Head of Education, referred to the important contribution of the NTA in strengthening the mechanisms of public integrity, with the basic condition of strict adherence to its independence from the executive, noting that the establishment of effective rules and control practices that ensure healthy competition is a vehicle for eliminating corruption in business transactions and a source of healthy development for our country. At the same time, she pointed out the urgent need to ensure a culture of transparency and accountability at all stages of international public procurement in the contemporary economic environment of transnational cooperation.
Finally, on Friday 1 October, the 4th phase of the evaluation was concluded with the participation of members of the judiciary, representatives of civil society and journalists.
This evaluation is particularly important because the results and recommendations, which will be included in the Report to be discussed in Paris in March 2022, will be analysed by the competent bodies of European and intergovernmental organisations, foreign states, the academic community, professionals from public and private institutions, as well as potential investors who follow developments in our country, while they will also be taken into account in the ranking of countries in international indicators of integrity, transparency and good governance.