The COVID-19 pandemic that broke out this year has affected many areas of life, including the fight against corruption: against the backdrop of increased specific risks of corruption, international organizations (GRECO, UN, OECD, and others) sought to develop recommendations for minimizing these risks, while countries took measures to combat corruption.

International cooperation

The pandemic also affected international cooperation: although some events, such as the first meeting of the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group, took place before the introduction of quarantine measures, many meetings were postponed indefinitely or moved online.

In October, for the first time in the history of the G20, a meeting was held of the heads of government agencies responsible for coordinating national anti-corruption policy, during which, among other things, Saudi Arabia's initiative to create a Global Operational Network of Law Enforcement Agencies to Combat Corruption was supported.

And in December, the 19th International Anti-Corruption Conference was held, attended by more than 7,000 participants from 135 countries.

Reports, reviews, ratings

However, the quarantine did not paralyze the activities of international organizations: over the course of the year, a considerable amount of analytical and other materials on anti-corruption issues were prepared.

For example, the OECD published a guide on ensuring integrity in the public sector and a report on the progress of anti-corruption reforms in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, while the UN High-Level Group on Financial Accountability, transparency, and integrity, an interim report on its activities and a number of reference documents; the World Bank, a report on the use of blockchain technology to combat corruption in public procurement; TRACE International – a global report on law enforcement practices in the field of transnational bribery and a document on the traditional Chinese practice of "guanxi".

Government agencies from individual countries also presented their reports, such as the UK Public Sector Standards Committee and the French Anti-Corruption Agency.

A number of anti-corruption ratings were updated, such as the Corruption Perceptions Index, the Rule of Law Index, and the Financial Secrecy Index.

In addition, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the results of its investigation into the links between major financial institutions and money laundering, fraud, and other financial crimes, based on leaked FinCEN data.

Foreign countries: public sector

Despite the pandemic, a number of important steps have been taken in foreign countries over the past year to prevent corruption in the public sector.

For example, at the beginning of the year, France updated its rules on moonlighting and the regulation of the "revolving door"; documents clarifying the application of such restrictions were also adopted in Thailand.

Abkhazia introduced a requirement to declare income and assets, while Malaysia made it necessary to publish the declarations of members of parliament in the public domain.

Kazakhstan has imposed a complete ban on gifts to civil servants, while Ukraine and Brazil have introduced provisions to protect whistleblowers, and Mexico and Armenia have introduced the possibility of confiscating illegally acquired property.

In addition, the Vatican has adopted a regulatory act establishing measures to prevent corruption in public procurement.

Several countries in the Balkan Peninsula have significantly transformed their anti-corruption legislation: Serbia enacted a new anti-corruption law, Slovenia clarified the procedures and powers of the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, the rules for receiving gifts, and certain other provisions of anti-corruption legislation, and Croatia issued guidelines on the regulation of conflicts of interest.

A number of countries have made changes to the procedure for applying measures of responsibility for corruption offences: for example, Indonesia has introduced a uniform algorithm for determining the appropriate punishment depending on the objective aspects of the offence, Colombia has prohibited prisoners from serving half of their sentence under house arrest, and in Kazakhstan, officials have been made liable – up to and including dismissal – for corruption offences committed by their subordinates.

A real drama unfolded this year in Ukraine around the current rules on criminal liability for violations in declarations: in October, the Constitutional Court ruled that these provisions of the Criminal Code, as well as the NACP's powers to verify declarations, were unconstitutional, resulting in the paralysis of the agency's investigative work, including against a number of high-ranking officials and judges of the Constitutional Court, and its temporary closure. access to the electronic register of officials' declarations. In December, the NACP's criminal liability and powers were restored, but the anti-corruption body remained dissatisfied with the proposed wording of the article of the Criminal Code, considering the punishment of restriction of liberty too "lenient."

Individual countries also took measures to improve the investigation of corruption crimes: in Ukraine, an electronic system was launched on a trial basis to monitor the progress of criminal investigations, South Korea established a special body to investigate cases of corruption among high-ranking officials, and Uzbekistan created an Anti-Corruption Agency, which, among other things, is responsible for conducting administrative investigations into corruption offences.

In addition, the European Anti-Fraud Office has announced plans to establish an independent European Union international prosecutor's office to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate criminal offenses affecting the financial interests of the EU.

Foreign countries: business sector

This year, our portal has undergone some important changes: we will now be looking at the issue of combating corruption not only from the perspective of regulatory measures taken in the public sector, but also in the context of combating corruption in the business sector. This is due to the fact that more and more countries are introducing liability for organizations, including criminal liability, for bribing foreign officials (for example, this year, criminal liability for legal entities for corruption was introduced in Malaysia), the number of relevant cases is growing, and, as a result, the risk for companies of falling under sanctions from foreign countries is increasing.

France has been particularly active in the past year in taking measures to prevent corruption in the commercial sector: the country has issued recommendations on conducting due diligence on companies in mergers and acquisitions, guidance on gifts and hospitality, and guidance on the specifics of proceedings in cases involving bribery of foreign officials. All this is happening against the backdrop of the high-profile proceedings against Airbus (in early 2020, the company was prosecuted for bribing foreign officials by law enforcement agencies in the UK, France, and the US; with total penalties exceeding $3.6 billion, most of which ($2 billion) was paid to France), the country is claiming, if not a leading role, then at least a significant role on the international stage in cases of transnational bribery.

Speaking of new players on the extraterritorial enforcement scene, it is impossible not to mention the first case of a foreign company being held liable for bribing foreign officials by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as this inevitably means an increased risk for foreign companies of falling under US sanctions. In this regard, organizations should pay close attention to documents issued this year by US law enforcement agencies, such as the updated Guidance on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the US Department of Justice's Guidance on Assessing Organizations' Compliance Programs, the US Securities and Exchange Commission's Rules on Disclosure of Payments to Foreign Governments by US Issuers Engaged in Extractive Industries, and specific clarifications from the US Department of Justice.

Another notable figure in foreign corruption cases is the UK Serious Fraud Office. This year, the agency released two important documents: a guide to assessing organizations' compliance programs and a guide to using DPAs, which can be used by businesses as a reference when developing their compliance programs. For the same purpose, organizations can refer to the recommendations for developing compliance programs adopted in Costa Rica and the Code for the Prevention of Corruption in the Business Sector published by the Swedish Anti-Corruption Institute.

Russia

The main novelty in Russian anti-corruption legislation last year was the introduction of an obligation for civil servants to declare digital financial instruments and digital currency: Thus, from January 1 to June 30, 2021, persons entering public service, as well as employees transferring to positions included in the list, will be required to submit a notification of their digital financial assets, digital currency, digital rights, and utility digital rights, and from July 2021, such information will be included in statements of income, expenses, property, and property obligations.

In addition, on December 29, the Russian Ministry of Labor published an updated version of the Methodological Recommendations for the Submission of Information on Income and Expenses for use in the 2021 declaration campaign.

Anti-corruption portal

In addition to news, a number of our own analytical materials and notes were published on our portal over the past year.

For example, we prepared a report on approaches to defining the concept of "conflict of interest" and presented an analysis of the practice of mitigating liability for corruption violations for organizations in the context of the proposed initiative to include relevant provisions in the Code of Administrative Offenses.

We also discussed combating corruption in sports, interesting approaches to anti-corruption education, research on traditional and informal forms of corruption, and examined the main problems associated with conducting external expert analysis of court decisions in the field of combating corruption.

In addition, over the course of the year, we significantly updated the section on anti-corruption literature and the list of useful external resources, added new profiles of international organizations and country profiles with information on key anti-corruption legislation and the bodies responsible for preventing and combating corruption, and, finally, we presented a database on prosecutions for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the form of dynamic infographics.