The fight against global corporate graft needs to aim higher

IN 2020, Airbus settled prosecution for a string of bribery offences in some 20 countries by paying a whopping 3.6 billion euros (S$5.1 billion) in penalties to anti-graft agencies in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. The sanction imposed as part of a deferred prosecution agreement still stands as the largest global foreign bribery settlement on record. As a three-year probation period expires, the deal also still stands as a symbol of how developed nations are using corporate plea bargains to bolster their own coffers while rarely seeking justice for victim states.

Now Indonesia has decided to play hardball. Despite having contributed to the UK’s investigation with evidence of kickbacks to state-owned airline Garuda, Jakarta was left out of the Airbus settlement. So officials are refusing to share information gathered in a separate investigation into Bombardier unless they are included in any eventual plea bargain.

It was only a matter of time before such protests emerged. Many countries are dissatisfied with how the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) convention on foreign bribery is being enforced. Since the convention was adopted in 1997, the focus of anti-corruption efforts has been on offenders rather than victims in countries where the crimes occur.