Rüşvetin Önlenmesine Yönelik OECD Çalışmalarının Türkiye Açısından Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

This PhD thesis aims to assess the potential impact of the OECD Anti-Bribery convention on Turkish firms and economy. Globalization and the growth of international trade and business has created many situations in which the payment of bribes may be highly beneficial to the companies that pay them by giving them access to profitable contracts over competitors. Bribery in international business has emerged as a major public policy issue around the world. Bribing public officials to obtain business contracts is now recognized as a social evil that inhibits economic development, distorts competition, misallocates resources and endangers democratic and moral values. In response to growing concern over the magnitude of transnational bribery and the potential economic distortions it creates, OECD adopted the Anti-Bribery Convention and recommendations about different related subjects such as public procurement, development aid, eximbank credits and others. The convention criminalized the act of bribing a foreign public official, which imposing large criminal and civil penalties and non-criminal sanctions for real persons and firms caught bribing and requires signatory countries to implement a comprehensive set of legal, regulatory and policy measures to prevent, detect, investigate, prosecute and sanction bribery of foreign public officials. The Convention and the recommendations are enforced through a programme of systematic follow-up to monitor and promote their full implementation by the OECD. The convention also requires countries to explicitly prohibit the tax deductibility of bribes to foreign public officials; money laundering legislation apply regardless of whether the predicate offence occurred abroad; making legal persons liable for bribery; prohibition of activities related to false accounting and promotes enhanced cooperation between tax administrations and law enforcement agencies both at home and abroad to counter bribery. Criminal and civil investigations and tax audits are very interrelated. So, the consequences of bribing will be a very heavy burden for firms facing tax audits, money laundering investigation, sanctions, administrative fines and imprisonment for real persons. This PhD thesis envisages that OECD Anti-Bribery convention will have a positive impact of on Turkish firms and economy?s competitive power and helps to combat with the corruption and bribery in Turkey.