Thread by @quaid_jennifer

Another fascinating public document related to corruption & crim enforcement is available. Check out Canada's 20th Annual Report to Parliament on Implementation of OECD #antibribery Convention & Enforcement of #CFPOA . Covers period of Sept 2018-Aug 2019 international.gc.ca/trade-agreemen…

Some of the information is widely known, but the report consolidates disparate pieces in one document. Helpful.
There are also some less well-known things.
A few highlights follow:

Under OECD Convention, Canada is acting as lead examiner of two member countries under phase 4 evaluation:
Australia (with co-examiner Korea)
France (with co-examiner Switzerland)
Canada will be subject to examination shortly by Austria and UK (report due in June 2021)

Phase 4 is focused on horizontal issues (coordination and enforcement across the OECD) as well as monitoring progress of individual countries in implementing legal mechanisms needed to tackle corruption and addressing weaknesses in enforcement.

The reporting period does not cover the high profile outcomes in the #SNC and #Bebawi cases, but it does cover a bunch of other prosecutions. And the overwhelming outcome in these cases was not good.
Some stayed for delay.
Others stayed because wiretap evidence inadmissible.

Oddly, report also mentions some old cases: Griffiths, Niko Resources and Karigar (only noteworthy because leave to appeal to SCC denied in March 2018).Not sure why, unless it is to balance against the stayed charges elsewhere.
Also mention of Barra & Govindia, both on appeal.

For those keen to know how corruption enforcement is organized, report describes work of agencies involved and efforts are coordination. There are *ten* federal agencies involved. Plenty of places where coordination with provinces needed too.
Very complex. Overlap inevitable.

The agencies are: @rcmpgrcpolice @PPSC_SPPC @GAC_Corporate @ExportDevCanada @CanRevAgency @JusticeCanadaEN @CompBureau @PSPC_SPAC Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), @TBS_Canada
That's a lot of folks and a lot of different mandates.

That said, there is no public face of anti-corruption efforts, it seems. When I googled RCMP & anti-corruption, I got an error page. I guess I used the wrong key words.
GAC does not have anything either.
With this many players, a central locus for information is essential.

And the matter of the provinces is critical. Domestic corruption, fraud, breach of trust etc would normally be prosecuted by provincial Crowns.
Was heartened to see indication of cooperation b/w @CompBureau and @ppsc on overlap b/w collusion (like bid-rigging) and corruption

Creation of Federal Contracting Fraud Tip Line in 2017 also a sign of cooperation: "dedicated telephone line and online form, to accept anonymous tips from Canadians who suspect fraud, collusion or corruption in federal government contracts and real property agreements."

But at the end of the day, the big questions on implementation of the OECD convention and Canada's obligations under other anti-bribery conventions will depend on the ability of all these agencies to deliver on enforcement.

These means two things IMO:
1 - those cases where charges are laid and that go to trial should not be ending up in stays for procedural and evidentiary matters.
Jordan has been around for a while - cases need to move faster.
Evidence-gathering has to be done right.

One way to get better evidence would be to offer better support to whistleblowers.
Another is to encourage voluntary disclosure, which brings me to the second point
2- use of remediation agreements needs to be legitimized and made *a lot* more transparent.

Not all cases will meet standard for prosecution & that is normal. But where reasonable prospect of conviction exists & public interest in accountability is there, the authorities have to be able to apply appropriate enforcement, whether it is negotiating an RA or prosecuting.

The many federal agencies involved are doing a lot of outreach & education work. They are training their people and giving guidance to stakeholders. All good. But at the end of the day, there still needs to be a credible threat of accountability to keep everyone on their toes.

Final word: W/out transparency about what is actually happening to fight corruption & bribery, enforcement efficacy suffers. People need to see that accountability is real & being applied fairly & in public interest.
To do that, information was must easy to access & understand.

Hi @threadreaderapp - could you unroll this thread?