OECD bribery report on Turkey: 'Only 10 out of 71 recommendations implemented'

The Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, operating under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has published its Phase 4 monitoring report examining Turkey's compliance with the Anti-Bribery Convention. According to the report, which was analyzed by journalist Çiğdem Toker in her column on T24, Turkey has been able to fully implement only 10 of the 71 critical recommendations presented to it. While Turkey's inadequacy in enforcing anti-bribery laws is described in the report as a "dismal enforcement record," the OECD warned international companies to "exercise due diligence and increase risk analysis" when doing business with Turkish firms.

The fact that there have been zero convictions in the judicial pursuit of bribery allegations in the 26 years since the convention was signed in 2000, along with the failure to address demands for reforms regarding judicial independence, were cited as the greatest sources of concern in the report.

23 FOREIGN BRIBERY ALLEGATIONS IN 26 YEARS, ZERO CONVICTIONS

The report provides a judicial balance sheet of the 23 major foreign bribery allegations recorded since Turkey became a party to the convention, revealing the following grim picture:

No legal investigation was even initiated for 15 cases, which constitute nearly two-thirds of the allegations.

Of the cases deemed worthy of investigation, 6 were closed without any charges being filed, while the 2 cases that reached the courts resulted in acquittals.

In over a quarter of a century, not a single conviction for foreign bribery has been handed down in Turkey.

OECD's Finding: "It is a source of great concern that Turkey has not been able to demonstrate to the Working Group that it is making sufficient efforts to investigate and prosecute genuine foreign bribery allegations."

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE UNIMPLEMENTED RECOMMENDATIONS

The report states that instead of improving the anti-bribery and anti-corruption environment, Turkey has chosen to leave recommendations pending. Among the 49 recommendations where no action has been taken, the most critical reform demands are as follows:

Persistent recommendations to remove the Minister of Justice and the Deputy Minister from the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) in order to insulate the body from the influence of the executive branch and political power have been ignored.

Demands for the actual implementation of the constitution and laws regarding freedom of the press, so that corruption allegations can be reported and written about freely without censorship, have gone unanswered.

A legal protection shield to protect individuals who report bribery and corruption they encounter to the authorities, both in the public and private sectors, has still not been established.

Legal incentive mechanisms to encourage companies to voluntarily report foreign bribery cases occurring within their own structures to the judiciary have not been established.

TURKEY DID NOT SUBMIT AN UPDATE REPORT, OECD ISSUES "DUE DILIGENCE" WARNING

Turkey did not submit the update on its anti-bribery actions required as part of the two-year follow-up process to the OECD.

Following this, the OECD Working Group took an exceptional step and issued a "due diligence" warning to multinational companies, commercial partners, and development banks that do business or plan to do business with Turkey. This warning means that much stricter audit and risk analysis processes will be applied to commercial agreements made with Turkish companies in international markets.