OECD: Israel must step up fight against international bribery

Israel must step up its fight against bribery in international transactions, especially arms deals, if it wishes to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the OECD said in a recent report.

Entitled "The Implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention," the 70-page report says Israel has never investigated or prosecuted any public officials or businesspeople on suspicion of bribing foreign public officials.

It recommends that Israel impose harsher penalties for people convicted of bribing foreign officials and raise awareness of bribery and corruption, especially in the foreign and defense ministries.

Although it does not name the countries or companies involved, the report appears to be referring mainly to Israeli companies in India.

Israel is a candidate to join the OECD, an organization of the world's 30 most economically developed countries. The organization's primary aim is to achieve a high rate of sustainable economic growth in each of its member states.

The OECD is urging the Foreign Ministry to encourage its workers to report any information it has on Israelis involved in illegal activity, including bribery that involves foreign officials. Such information can include media reports of corruption.

The report finds that the military censor protects companies that are part of the defense industry and sometimes prevents the media from reporting suspicions or investigations about Israeli companies' alleged bribery. It calls on the censor's office to report the allegations to the law-enforcement authorities even if the Israeli media are banned from covering the stories.

An OECD committee visited Israel in June and July and met defense and foreign ministry officials, IDF officers, journalists and representatives of major companies. It examined Israeli laws and regulations regarding export permits and is the body that issued the report.

The report cites media coverage of foreign countries' investigations of Israeli companies, including government companies that allegedly paid bribes to promote arms deals.

One section of the report commends Israel's whistle-blowers and calls for protecting them from penalties their employers might impose.

The committee commends the attorney general's guidelines on combating bribery in international transactions and the Foreign Ministry's instructions on the matter to its employees worldwide. However, it recommends raising the employees' awareness of these instructions.

The Justice Ministry, which is coordinating Israel's inclusion into the organization, said Thursday that Israel has already undertaken steps to implement the report's recommendations.