07/04/2014 – Latvia has taken an important step on the road to OECD membership by completing the process to become a member of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention. Latvia will become the 41st Party to the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention on 30 May 2014. Ministry State Secretary Andrejs Pildegovičs deposited Latvia’s instrument to accede to the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions with Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), at a brief ceremony held in Paris on 31 March.
“Joining the Convention will enable Latvia to play a more active role in global efforts to tackle bribery and corruption,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. “It also marks an important step in strengthening Latvia’s ties with the OECD in the current accession process to our Organisation.”
The OECD invited Latvia to join the OECD Working Group on Bribery in September 2013 and to take the necessary steps to become a Party to the Convention. This follows the opening of talks in May 2013 for Latvia to become an OECD member.
Latvia will undergo systematic reviews on the implementation of its anti-bribery laws, starting with a first examination in June 2014.
Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD and Andrejs Pildegovics, State Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia. Photo: Herve Cortinat/OECD
The OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, which entered into force in 1999, outlaws the bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. Through country monitoring and extensive peer-led follow-up, the Convention seeks to ensure that the fight against bribery is effective, thus creating a level playing field for fair competition.
In addition to Latvia, the 34 OECD member countries plus Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Russia and South Africa are Parties to the Convention.
For more information, journalists are invited to contact Lynn Robertson of the OECD’s Anti-Corruption Division (tel. +33 1 45 24 18 77).
For further information on OECD’s work to fight corruption, visit www.oecd.org/corruption.
