NCJ Number
201525
Date Published
May 2002
Length
121 pages
Annotation
This document presents the second update of the situation report on corruption in 11 Baltic Sea countries, and offers information from the year 1999 to 2001.
Abstract
In 1998 at the Riga Summit, the Task Force on Organized Crime in the Baltic Sea Region was asked to also work on corruption-related issues. The situation report was developed by the Task Force in 1999 and presented at the Baltic Sea States Summit in 2000. The goal of the situation report is to produce up-to-date data on corruption in the region. This situation report considers the following main issues: data concerning the number of cases of corruption reported in the Baltic Sea countries during the period 1999 through 2001; descriptions of national anti-corruption programs and campaigns; legislation that specifically targets corruption; relevant international instruments in the field of corruption. International instruments include the first protocol to the PIF Convention of 1996 by the European Union, the European Union Corruption Convention of 1997, and the European Union Joint Action on Corruption in the private sector of 1998, the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption of 1999 by the Council of Europe, the Civil Law Convention on Corruption of 1999 by the Council of Europe, and the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions of 1997. After a brief introduction and a summary of the conclusions, the report offers a separate chapter for each of the 11 Baltic Sea countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Each chapter presents data on corruption in the region; type of information in each chapter varies by the type of data kept and offered by each country. General conclusions state that some Baltic Sea countries that are traditionally corruption-free need to fine tune mechanisms for uncovering hidden corruption. Since the danger of corruption stems, in part, from its integration in the global economy, the next report will seek to include more information about national bodies responsible for dealing with corruption.