Combating Bribery and Corruption

The United Nations Convention Against Corruption

In December 2003, New Zealand signed the UN Convention Against Corruption, which requires countries to take action in both the public and private sector to prevent corruption.

The Convention creates:

• arrangements to strengthen international co-operation

• arrangements to prevent the transfer of funds obtained through corruption

• ways of monitoring a country’s compliance with the Convention.

The Corruption Convention requires countries to criminalise corrupt behaviour such as:

• the bribery and the embezzlement of public funds

• trading in influence

• the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption.

When dealing with the proceeds of corruption, a country must be able to trace, freeze, seize and confiscate those proceeds.

New Zealand is compliant with most of the provisions of the Convention due in part to our full compliance with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. However, there are parts of the Convention which need to be made part of our law.

The Ministry of Justice is currently working on the necessary steps to bring New Zealand into full compliance with this important treaty. These include:

• defining "business" as including "international aid"

• creating a new criminal offence of the acceptance or solicitation of a bribe by a foreign public official

• creating a new criminal offence where a person solicits or accepts a bribe to use his or her real or supposed influence to influence an official

• increasing the penalty for committing an offence under the Secret Commissions Act 1910

• listing the Convention in the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1992.

Ratification and compliance with the Convention will be an important step in maintaining our international reputation as being free of corruption, supporting international efforts to combat corruption in all its forms, and strengthening our anti-bribery laws.