The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has cancelled a scheduled mission to Hungary to discuss anti-bribery measures, citing the government’s failure to act on previous recommendations. The OECD stated that this was the first time such a high-level mission had been called off due to the Hungarian government’s inability to secure sufficient representation of ministers and senior officials for the event.
The OECD pointed out that the Hungarian government has not made tangible progress in addressing long-standing recommendations, such as understanding foreign bribery risk exposure, lack of strategy for detecting and investigating foreign bribery cases, and legal clarity on corporate responsibility for foreign bribery. Some of these recommendations date back more than a decade.
The Working Group on Bribery expressed serious concerns about Hungary’s low level of foreign bribery enforcement and announced additional measures to encourage the government to re-engage and address identified shortcomings. The European Union and the United States have also raised alarms about politically linked corruption in Hungary and concerns about democracy and rule of law.
In light of these issues, protests erupted in Hungary in March following the release of a recording by a former government insider alleging corruption among top officials. Protesters called for the resignation of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his chief prosecutor. The cancellation of the OECD mission highlights ongoing challenges with corruption in Hungary and the need for concrete action to address these issues.
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