Five Irish companies have been accused of trying to bribe foreign officials in the past year, according to a report from Transparency International, which says the Government is not doing enough to combat the problem.
The report claims there are substantial loopholes concerning foreign bribery involving Irish citizens. For example, the Garda and Director of Public Prosecutions will only bring a prosecution against an individual or company if part of the crime was committed in the Republic.
The anti-corruption watchdog says that most industrial nations are failing to live up to their own political promises on fighting corporate bribery abroad. Two-thirds of the countries that have signed an anti-bribery convention of the OECD, the Paris-based club of industrial nations, "have achieved little or no enforcement" of the treaty, Transparency International said.
The report also points out that there is no compulsion on Irish companies to protect anyone who reports a corrupt transaction. It recommends that whistleblower legislation be enacted to address this weakness.
Transparency International said that in October 2005 an Irish national is alleged to have given a multimillion-dollar bribe to officials in Azerbaijan's state-run oil agency. He is now under indictment in the US for his part in the fraud, according to Transparency International.
Three Irish companies are also alleged to have paid bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime during the UN Oil for Food programme, the organisation said. It said the World Bank believed that $1 trillion was paid annually in bribes worldwide.
John Devitt, acting chief executive of the organisation, said: "The law on foreign bribery in Ireland sends out the message that it is wrong to bribe here, but okay to bribe elsewhere. This amounts to gross hypocrisy and a moral and legal double standard. The law must be changed as a matter of urgency."
In an effort to shame some countries into action, Transparency International singled out the UK, Canada, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands as the worst offenders. - (Additional reporting: Financial Times service)
