Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

"Internationally, the challenge will be to ensure that the countries and jurisdictions that have promised increased transparency live up to their commitments. The OECD, tasked with a mandate to monitor their performance, will be watching like a hawk."

This is the last sentence of an article signed by Angel Gurria dated 24 April 2009.

Watching like a hawk?

Unfortunately the experience of the OECD demonstrates that the organisation is everything but a hawk for jurisdictions that do not implement the international commitments.

The non respect of the OECD Anti-bribery Convention illustrates the failure to act like a hawk, all the more than the jurisdiction that is currently leading the cabal against the OECD and Angel Gurria is the one that has not responded yet to some key recommendations, and especially despite an injunction last year, the enforcement of the liability of legal persons for foreign bribery.