Law boost sought after bribes bust
The Reserve Bank scandal might lead to legislative changes. Photo: Sze Kai Chen
AUSTRALIA's foreign bribery laws are set to be strengthened in the wake of the Reserve Bank of Australia corruption scandal.
The Australian Federal Police told The Sun-Herald it had been working on suggested legislative changes with the Attorney-General's Department.
This comes after a 26-month investigation, which last week led to Australia's first foreign bribery charges being laid against RBA banknote firms, Securency and Note Printing Australia (NPA), and six former executives.
The AFP has issued fresh advice to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Austrade, the federal trade agency, about their obligations to ensure Australian citizens and companies do not act corruptly overseas.
Some Australian diplomats and trade officials have been caught up in the bribery scandal after working closely with Securency and NPA to help them win banknote supply contracts in countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and India.
Six former Securency and NPA executives, including their respective former managing directors, Myles Curtis and John Leckenby, were charged with bribery offences on Friday. They could face 10 years in jail if convicted. All were released on bail.
Two Malaysians, including the country's former assistant central bank governor, were arrested on Friday and charged with bribery-related offences connected to payments made by NPA.
The charges against the former executives and the RBA companies are Australia's first under the 12-year-old foreign bribery laws, which the AFP has indicated it wishes to see enhanced.
''As a result of various investigations on foreign bribery, the AFP has been liaising with the Attorney-General's Department on suggested legislative changes regarding potential enhancement of current legislation,'' the AFP said in a statement.
''The AFP continues to liaise closely with DFAT, including Austrade, and the Attorney-General's Department to ensure all agencies have the most contemporary information to inform their practices, as well as a consistent and united approach in addressing these issues.''
The expected move to enhance Australia's bribery laws comes after years of criticism by the world's leading authority on corruption, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In 1999, Australia joined dozens of other nations in ratifying an anti-bribery convention, which made it illegal for companies and individuals to make payments to foreign government officials in order to obtain a business advantage.
But Australia's willingness and ability to pursue alleged instances of foreign bribery have been seriously questioned by the OECD. Until Friday's charges against the RBA companies and banknote executives, Australia had not prosecuted a single case of foreign bribery.
David Chaikin, a corruption specialist from Sydney University, yesterday said the Securency and NPA arrests would ''be seen internationally as Australia finally getting its act together''.
But he warned more foreign bribery investigations were needed in Australia to properly deter companies from acting corruptly overseas.
''Australian companies operate in some of the most corrupt countries in the world, and yet there has never been an effective investigation of an Australian multinational for foreign corruption,'' he said.
''What is different in the Securency case is that for the first time the Australian Federal Police has been properly resourced in a foreign corruption investigation.''