Colombia's Phase 4 Report from the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions notes that Colombia must urgently address longstanding deficiencies in its framework for fighting foreign bribery. The report also expresses concern that the country has progressively disengaged from its obligations under the OECD Convention on Combatting Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
Colombia has achieved its second administrative sanction of a legal person for foreign bribery, but there has never been an attempted prosecution of a natural person and detection levels are low. Mutual legal assistance mechanisms are uncoordinated and underused, and risks regarding the independence of investigations and prosecutions remain unaddressed. The Working Group is also seriously concerned about the longstanding lack of protection for whistleblowers, as well as the significant siloing of agencies responsible for the detection, investigation, and prosecution of foreign bribery.
The 46-country Working Group has just completed its Phase 4 evaluation of Colombia's implementation of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and related instruments. In addition to the aspects highlighted above, the report details further areas for improvement of Colombia's effectiveness in preventing, detecting, and enforcing the foreign bribery offence.
The Working Group recommendations include:
- Reengaging with the Working Group on Bribery and its work, including where foreign bribery enforcement is concerned.
- Strengthening coordination between key agencies responsible for foreign bribery, including the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Superintendency of Corporations.
- Ensuring that investigations can be opened on the basis of mutual legal assistance requests and proactively share information internally to ensure that all potential allegations arising from mutual legal assistance can be appropriately investigated.
- Urgently implementing a comprehensive whistleblower protection framework.
- Ensuring the independence of investigations and prosecutions.
The Report also notes positive developments in Colombia that may contribute to combating foreign bribery. Bancóldex has fully implemented all outstanding recommendations from Phase 2 and 3. Colombia has also established a system of anti-money laundering compliance checks and sanctions against private sector entities which fail to implement these preventive measures, improving the likelihood that reporting entities submit suspicious activities reports diligently and potentially increasing detection of foreign bribery.
The Report is part of the Working Group's fourth phase of monitoring, launched in 2016. Phase 4 looks at the evaluated country's particular challenges and positive achievements. It also explores issues such as detection, enforcement, corporate liability, and international co-operation, as well as unresolved issues from prior reports. Colombia will report to the Working Group in two years (i.e. December 2027) on its implementation of all recommendations and its enforcement efforts, and will provide an additional report in December 2026 with an action plan to implement five high-priority recommendations.
Established in 1994, the OECD Working Group on Bribery is responsible for overseeing the implementation and enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, the Anti-Bribery Recommendation, and associated instruments, using a robust peer-review monitoring mechanism.
