Flaws in corruption laws identified

A NEW report by the Council of Europe on Irish corruption laws and on the transparency of party funding in Ireland has given a broadly positive assessment, while highlighting a number of shortcomings in both areas.

The Council’s Group of States Against Corruption (Greco) yesterday published its latest evaluation reports on Ireland focusing on those two key themes – the criminalisation of corruption and possible flaws and opacity in political funding laws.

The two reports concluded that Ireland is generally in compliance with the relevant European conventions but also made 10 recommendations where gaps or flaws have been identified.

Most of these are in the area of political funding. GRECO noted in particular the huge gap between donations disclosed and the actual funds raised by parties.

It referred to the standard practice where parties solicit the vast majority of their political donations in sums below disclosure limits. Its key recommendations include a lowering of disclosure limits; further disclosure of party finances and the desirability of requiring third-parties to make fuller disclosures. The latter is a reference to groups, such as Libertas, which become involved in referendum campaigns.

Greco representatives visited Ireland as part of its research for the report. In terms of the anti-corruption legislation, it noted that is spread across a number of Acts, some extending back over 100 years. It said the terminology differs from one Act to another, which created difficulties, and recommended consolidation into one piece of legislation.

It also identified a small number of flaws in anti-corruption legislation. In its conclusion it stated: “An important lacuna refers to the lack of jurisdiction of Irish authorities over a national who commits a bribery offence abroad, when this person does not have the status of a public official.” This matter is being addressed in the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2008, which has yet to complete its passage through the Oireachtas. It also said there is a need to establish a distinct offence of “trading in influence”.

This would specifically target the corrupt behaviour of those persons who are close to power and who try to obtain advantages from their situation by influencing the decision-maker (so-called background corruption).

According to the report, some 17 prosecutions were directed in Ireland between 2005 and 2009 under the Prevention of Corruption Acts, 12 of them on indictment. Conviction was achieved in 10 of the cases.

High-profile cases involving public officials include the convictions of former minister Ray Burke, former official George Redmond and public affairs consultant Frank Dunlop. “Irish bribery statutes are the product of more than a century of incremental change. As a result, the relevant statutes dealing with corruption offences sometimes overlap, contain differing and unusual terminology, prescribe dissimilar punishments and have proved to be difficult to fully reconcile with the exact wording of other European and international conventions.”

In the report on political funding, Greco believed Ireland had been developing a thorough system of regulation of party finance since 1984.

It noted the current system had several strong features, including a ban on foreign donations and restrictions on donations and expenditure. It also identified as a strength the role played by the Standards in Public Office Commission.

However, Greco concluded that the legislation was very fragmented. It also noted a “significant shortcoming”, namely the absence of a requirement for political parties to account for total finances.