OECD criticises Portugal

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Working Group on Bribery released its Phase 3 report on Portugal in late June. The report evaluates and makes recommendations on Portugal’s implementation of various anti-corruption laws. The group said it was “seriously concerned that Portugal’s enforcement of the foreign bribery offence has been extremely low”. Despite Portugal’s strong economic links to countries plagued by severe corruption, only 15 foreign bribery allegations have surfaced since 2001. These allegations have not resulted in a single prosecution to date and several investigations were closed prematurely. “Portuguese authorities did not proactively investigate or seek the co-operation of foreign authorities in several cases,” the group said.