The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is applying substantial pressure to the British government over the dropped investigation of alleged bribes paid by defense contractor, BAE Systems to Saudi Arabian officials in order to secure a lucrative $7.7 billion arms contract - the largest in British history. The OECD view the British action (or in-action) as a heavy blow to the international anti-corruption regime, and promised their own review of the British investigation to take place later this year:

An OECD working group said that previous recommendations to correct shortcomings in British law remained unimplemented, and it said that an OECD team would be sent within one year to take another look at Britain's anti-bribery efforts.

"Is there somewhere a systemic problem?" said Mark Pieth, who heads the OECD group and is also a professor of criminal law at the University of Basel in Switzerland. "Is there something that is blocking them? We want to go and have a look."

Pieth noted that Britain had failed to bring a single prosecution in foreign bribery cases since introducing a new law in 2001, despite a number of investigations. Pieth added that the continuation of the process gave Britain a chance to show that it was serious about stamping out corruption.

More on the BAE scandal, here.

-- MDT

Labels: BAE, OECD, Rosemary Ekosso