Rt Hon Winston Peters
Minister of Foreign Affairs
13 November 2006
Media statement
NZ scores highly in OECD bribery report
New Zealand has scored highly in an OECD report for its efforts to prevent local companies from trying to bribe foreign
public officials, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said today.
The report of the 36-country OECD Working Group on Bribery said New Zealand had scored highly in comparison with other
OECD countries.
"This should not come as a surprise, given our ranking as the world's least corrupt nation (along with Iceland and
Finland) on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index,” Mr Peters said.
"The OECD report praised New Zealand for efforts to make extradition easier, for whistleblowing laws, for tax laws
prohibiting deductions for bribes, and for proposed legislation to allow confiscation of the proceeds of bribery.
“But we agree with the OECD that there are always improvements to be made. Officials are already reviewing anti-bribery
and corruption laws in the Crimes Act and the Secret Commissions Act and will be introducing legislation making it
easier to recover the proceeds of bribery.
“More can always be done to raise awareness of bribery and corruption laws. The State Services Commissioner is expected
to release a revised code of conduct for public servants next year, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has
guidelines for diplomatic staff on dealing with allegations of bribery.
"The government is also looking at ways we can help raise private sector awareness of bribery and corruption laws here
and overseas. We need to be vigilant in our fight against all forms of corruption, not just bribery of foreign public
officials, to be an attractive place to do business,” Mr Peters said.
The full OECD Working Group on Bribery report is available at: http://www.oecd.org/infobycountry/0,2646,en_2649_34855_1_70690_119663_1_1,00.html
ENDS