This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Learn More News German CEOs join Transparency International calls for revision of MP bribery lawsSite Map
German CEOs join Transparency International calls for revision of MP bribery laws
Berlin, 8 August 2012. The letter sent by more than 30 CEOs of large German companies (including Allianz, Daimler, Deutsche Bank and Siemens), underlines the urgent need for the criminal offence of bribing a parliamentarians to be revised, Transparency International Germany said today.
This is the most important outstanding requirement for Germany to ratify the UN Convention against Corruption. Germany has yet to ratify this convention agreed in 2003, ratified by 161 countries. It joins a list of countries that have not ratified including Saudi Arabia, Syria and Sudan.
"Today’s letter reinforces our demand that parliament finally strengthen the criminal offence of bribery of parliamentarians,” said Peter von Blomberg, deputy chairperson of Transparency Germany. “German parliamentarians are not only harming Germany's reputation, the reputation of the parliament, but also the German export industry. Germany’s failure to ratify this convention makes life harder for German companies abroad. Agreements with foreign business partners are considerably hindered when German companies can be confronted with the fact that their home country refuses to ratify this leading global anti-corruption treaty.
Press Contact
Dr. Christian Humborg, Managing Director
Transparency International Deutschland
+49 30 549 898 0
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
» Read the article at Transparency International
German big businesses push government to sign anti-corruption convention
Berlin, 8 August 2012. Today Germany’s biggest businesses criticised their government for failing to ratify the global treaty against corruption agreed by the United Nations almost ten years ago.
One hundred sixty-one countries have committed to put the measures in the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in place since then. Besides Germany, only one other EU country (the Czech Republic) and two other G20 countries (Saudi Arabia and Japan) have failed to ratify this treaty.
In a statement released today, Transparency International Germany’s deputy chair Peter von Blomberg said:
“German parliamentarians are not only harming Germany's reputation, the reputation of the parliament, but also the German export industry. Germany’s failure to ratify this convention makes life harder for German companies abroad.”
Transparency International Germany head Christian Humborg explained the main stumbling blocks in a blog post for us last year:
Why are German parliamentarians hesitant? They fear investigations without prosecutions. Germany has a rather lax immunity law and a simple investigation can ruin political careers. “Why risk this?”, think many parliamentarians.
The situation in Germany is bizarre. The government wants others, such as Afghanistan, to “fight corruption”, yet it does not clean up its own house.
Most absurd is the fact that bribing foreign parliamentarians is more harshly regulated than bribing national parliamentarians in Germany.
This February, Transparency International Germany issued a report on the country’s institutions and their resistance to corruption. There is a lot still to do across the board from law enforcers’ resources to law makers’ behaviour: the report highlighted 84 areas where action was needed.
Press Contacts
Dr. Christian Humborg
Managing Director, Transparency International Deutschland
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+49 30 549 898 0
Chris Sanders
Manager, Media and Public Relations, Transparency International Secretariat
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+49 30 3438 20 666
» Read the article at Transparency International
Share and Enjoy
