Rt Hon Winston Peters
Minister of Foreign Affairs

13 November 2006
Media statement

NZ scores highly in OECD bribery report

New Zealand has scored highly in an OECD report for its efforts to prevent local companies from trying to bribe foreign public officials, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said today.

The report of the 36-country OECD Working Group on Bribery said New Zealand had scored highly in comparison with other OECD countries.

"This should not come as a surprise, given our ranking as the world's least corrupt nation (along with Iceland and Finland) on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index,” Mr Peters said.

"The OECD report praised New Zealand for efforts to make extradition easier, for whistleblowing laws, for tax laws prohibiting deductions for bribes, and for proposed legislation to allow confiscation of the proceeds of bribery.

“But we agree with the OECD that there are always improvements to be made. Officials are already reviewing anti-bribery and corruption laws in the Crimes Act and the Secret Commissions Act and will be introducing legislation making it easier to recover the proceeds of bribery.

“More can always be done to raise awareness of bribery and corruption laws. The State Services Commissioner is expected to release a revised code of conduct for public servants next year, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has guidelines for diplomatic staff on dealing with allegations of bribery.

"The government is also looking at ways we can help raise private sector awareness of bribery and corruption laws here and overseas. We need to be vigilant in our fight against all forms of corruption, not just bribery of foreign public officials, to be an attractive place to do business,” Mr Peters said.

The full OECD Working Group on Bribery report is available at: http://www.oecd.org/infobycountry/0,2646,en_2649_34855_1_70690_119663_1_1,00.html

ENDS

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