The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in a recent report expressed serious concerns that France is not doing enough to combat the bribery of foreign public officials involving French companies.

In an increasingly stringent anti-corruption enforcement landscape, the report signals to companies under France's jurisdictional reach that now is an opportune time to review anti-corruption policies and procedures to ensure a culture of compliance.

In the OECD report, lead examiners said they “deplore the very low number of convictions for bribery of foreign public officials handed down in France.” Since enacting an anti-bribery law in June 2000, France has initiated only 33 bribery investigations and has handed down only five convictions.

Of those five convictions, the only one to involve a company is still under appeal.  In September, aerospace and defense company Safran was fined 500,000 euros for paying bribes to foreign public officials in order to secure business in Nigeria.

The OECD said it is “particularly concerned by the lackluster response of the French authorities in relation to companies sanctioned by other parties to the Convention.” In particular, the OECD said it regrets that legislative changes enacted in 2007 and 2011 to combat corruption didn't eliminate dual criminality, in which a country cannot prosecute a crime if the wrongdoing isn't illegal in the country where it happened. The OECD recommends that France remove it.

The OECD said it also regrets the special regime of common law that prohibits victims of foreign bribery from being civil parties to proceedings and, therefore, initiating criminal cases. In addition to recommending that France remove this limitation, the OECD also recommends that France ensure that companies and their subsidiaries cannot avoid criminal liability.

“The applied and available penalties, along with the lack of any recourse to measures to confiscate the proceeds of corruption do not appear to be effective, proportionate or dissuasive,” the report said. “France should increase the maximum fines and make full use of confiscation and additional penalties that are available under the law, in particular debarment from public procurement.”

The OECD did note some positive elements in its review of France, including reforms underway to guarantee greater independence of prosecutors. The OECD further noted that the introduction of whistleblower protections into French law is a “potentially significant contribution to the detection and punishment of foreign bribery.”

Overall, the OECD recommends that France:

Pursue reforms underway to guarantee greater independence for prosecutors and provide adequate resources for investigations and prosecutions in corruption cases;

­Clarify the existing law to ensure that it is not interpreted by prosecutors as imposing requirements that go beyond those of the Convention;

­Ensure that the implementation of the regime for defense secrecy does not impede investigations and prosecutions; and

­Encourage reporting by French public officials of suspected foreign bribery cases to the Public Prosecutor's Office by raising awareness of the obligation to report and of the protections guaranteed for whistleblowers.

The OECD report additionally includes an overview of recent enforcement actions and specific legal, policy and institutional features of France's framework for fighting foreign bribery. As with other Working Group members, France will submit a written report to the Working Group within two years on steps it has taken to implement the new recommendations.