Pak mulls joining global anti-bribery conventions

In the midst of Panama and the Bahamas leaks politics the government has decided to explore possibilities of joining international conventions of transparency and openness in governance. To this end Finance Minister Ishaq Dar convened a meeting yesterday.An official of the ministry of finance said that Pakistan is compliant of basic requirement for joining the conventions OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and the Open Government Partnership (OGP).At the time of signing of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, OECD secretary general Angel Gurria invited Islamabad to sign the convention on combating bribery.“It will not pose additional burden,” the official said, adding it is good to be part of an international commitment.The Organisation of the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) anti-bribery convention was introduced in 1999.The anti-bribery convention establishes legally binding standards to criminalise bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions. It is the first and only international anti-corruption instrument focused on the “supply side” of the bribery transaction.According to OECD data analysis of foreign bribe cases concluded between 1999 and 2014, 95% bribes were paid to officials in five categories – 80% to state owned enterprises officials, 6.97% to head of states, 4.08% ministers, 2.93% defence official, 1.14% customs officials and 4.77% to other categories of officials.The OGP is an initiative of the UK government which was launched in the year 2011 on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting. The forum provides a platform for domestic reformers to make their governments more open, accountable and responsive to citizens.According to the finance ministry official, the Department of International Development (DFID) has requested Islamabad to sign the convention.Four main condition for joining the convention are fiscal transparency, access to information especially government data, public officials asset disclosure, and citizen engagement in policy making and governance.Answering a question, the official said that no final decision was taken to join these fora. An official statement issued after the meeting quoted the finance minister as saying that Pakistan’s fiscal regime stands strengthened by joining the OECD Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative  Assistance in Tax Matters.Dar directed that inter-ministerial consultation should be undertaken to determine Pakistan’s readiness for accession to other international conventions and protocols which create transparency and openness in governance.He said accession to these multilateral agreements will augment the country’s efforts to combat fiscal crime and will further strengthen our compliance framework on anti-corruption.