PARIS - A recent OECD study finds that anti-corruption objectives may have been deprioritised during the COVID-19 crisis. Massive business and supply-chain disruptions, combined with large increases in government spending with scant oversight, and rapid changes to the regulatory landscape not subject to established accountability mechanisms, generated many opportunities for businesses to engage in corruption.

Data from the Public Integrity Indicators show that many countries lack safeguards to prevent corruption in lobbying, political finance and conflict-of-interest situations.

Lobbying is a particularly unregulated policy area in OECD countries, leading to opportunities for undue influence over policymaking. As measured against OECD standards on lobbying, OECD countries fulfilled less than 40% of criteria regarding both regulations and practice. Top performers in this area include Chile, France and Ireland.

Countries fare better in regulating political finance, fulfilling on average two-thirds of criteria for regulations and over half for practice. This suggests a comparatively lower risk of businesses securing advantages through contributions to campaigns and parties. Top performers in this area include Finland, France, Slovenia, and the United States.

When it comes to conflict-of-interest safeguards, OECD countries fulfil on average 71% of criteria for regulations but only 33% for practice. This denotes that, while many countries have strong regulatory requirements, they often fail to track submissions of interest and asset declarations, or have weak procedures in place for verifying their content. There nevertheless exists some good-practice country examples in this area, from Canada, France, Slovenia, and the United States.