Steps taken to implement and enforce the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions CHILE (Information as of June 2011) Date of deposit of instrument of ratification/acceptance or date of accession Chile signed the Convention on December 17th, 1997 and deposited its instrument of ratification with the OECD Secretary-General on April 18th, 2001. The Convention entered into force for Chile internationally on June 18th, 2001 pursuant to article 15.2 of the Convention. Implementing legislation Executive Decree No. 496, of October 10th 2001, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was published in the Official Gazette on January 30th 2002, date on which the Convention was enacted in Chile. Law No. 20,341 of April 22nd, 2009 amends the offence of foreign bribery and related sanctions. It has created a new Chapter 9bis dedicated to foreign bribery, repealing articles 250bisA and 250bisB of the Criminal Code. Both articles, which had been added to the Criminal Code by Law No. 19,829 in 2002, as part of the implementing legislation, have been replaced with new articles 251bis and 251ter in Chapter 9bis1 of the Criminal Code. Law 20.341 completes the offense of bribery of foreign public officials so that now it includes the three verbs required by the Convention: to offer, to promise and to give, thus extending its previous wording which stated: "he who offers to give..." It establishes that the foreign bribery offence can apply to bribes composed of non-pecuniary benefits. It increases the sanctions for the offence, in order that they shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, which additionally allows Chile to grant the extradition in entire agreement with the Convention. It replaces the concept of “international business transactions” by “international transactions”. It also replaces the term “public service enterprise” by “public enterprise”. The current version of the offence of foreign bribery is as follows: “§ 9bis. Bribery to Foreign Public Officials” “Section 251bis. He who offers, promises or gives a foreign public official an economic or other nature benefit, for that official or a third person, for acting or incurring in an omission in order to obtain or retain – for him or a third party – a business or an improper advantage in the field of any international transactions shall be punished with short-term confinement, medium to maximum degree, and with the fine and disqualification referred to in section 248bis, indent one. Should the benefit have a non-economic nature, the fine will range from one hundred to one thousand monthly tax units. The same penalties shall be imposed on he who offers, promises or gives the said benefit to a foreign public official for having acted or having incurred in the referred acting or omission.
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Bribery of Chilean officials and bribery of foreign public officials are now in two separate chapters because the former aims to protect public administration and the latter aims to protect international business transactions.
He who, in the same situations described in the above indent, consents to give the said benefit, shall be sanctioned with short term confinement, from minimum to medium degree, besides the same penalties of fine and disqualification. Section 251 ter.- For the purposes of the provisions of the preceding article, it is considered a foreign public official any person holding a legislative, administrative or judicial office in a foreign country, whether appointed or elected, and any person holding a public office for a foreign country, either within a public body or a public company. It shall also mean any official or agent of a public international organisation”. Law 20,371 of August 25th, 2009 amends the Organic Court Code introducing jurisdiction over active bribery of foreign public officials committed abroad by Chilean nationals, or foreigners who habitually reside in Chile. Law No. 20,393 (http://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=1008668&buscar=ley+20393) which introduces criminal responsibility of legal persons for the offenses of bribery of Chilean and foreign public officials, money laundering, and financing of terrorism was published in the Official Gazzette on December 2nd , 2009. Other relevant laws, regulations or decrees that have an impact on a country’s implementation of the OECD Convention or Recommendations Law No. 19,913, published in the Official Gazette on December 18, 2003, established the Financial Analysis Unit (FAU). It is a decentralized public service with legal status, which relates with the President of the Republic through the Ministry of Finance. http://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=219119&idParte=&idVersion=2009-12-02 Law No. 20.205, published on September 24th, 2007, regulates the protection of the civil servants who report in good faith to the regular authorities that an act has been committed by a public official, which constitutes misconduct to probity. It also establishes sanctions for those who do frivolous or of bad faith reports. Circular Letter No. 56, dated November 8th, 2007 - published in extract in the Official Gazette of November 16th, 2007 - on "Payments of Bribes or Bribes to Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions. Inadmissibility to consider them as Necessary Expenses to produce Income. Article 31 of the Income Tax Law”, was published in extract in the Official Gazette of November 16th, 2007 and is available in the web site of the Internal Revenue Service: http://www.sii.cl/documentos/circulares/2007/circu56.htm This document which reinforces the explicit nature of the prohibition of the tax deduction of the foreign bribe, is nowadays in force and in full application. The Ministry of Finance has issued the Executive Decree No. 1,763 of December 26th 2008, published on October 6th, 2009, which amends the Regulations of the Law on Public Procurement and Contracting. Paragraph 31 of the Single Article of the mentioned Executive Decree disables the enrolment in the State Registry of Suppliers to those who have been convicted for domestic bribery and foreign public officials’ bribery. The inability will last for a period of 3 years. On August 23rd 2010, the National Prosecutor sent Circular Letter 440/2010 to prosecutors, legal advisors and lawyers of the National Prosecutor’s Office, containing a General Instruction, establishing common criteria to guide the investigation and penal prosecution of legal persons.
By virtue of Law 20.393 on criminal responsibility of legal persons, regulations for agencies that rate crime prevention schemes were introduced. Accordingly, the Chilean Superintendence of Securities and Insurance (SVS) issued General Rule 302 of 2011, in which registration requirements for such agencies were established. Under this rule, the aforementioned agencies have to be registered before the SVS in order to issue any ratings of this nature and as such, they are only allowed to certify crime prevention models related to money laundering, bribery and financing of terrorism. Currently, there are 5 of these agencies registered before the SVS. By Rule 638 of 2010, with the purpose of strengthening the role of external audits in the prevention of bribery, and in accordance with the OECD’s “Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions”, the Chilean Superintendence of Securities and Insurance required from such audits ongoing information regarding the existence of best practices, internal procedures and any other measures adopted to improve their crime prevention role. Other information Relevant authorities - Dirección Asuntos Jurídicos Ministerio Relaciones Exteriores Teatinos 180, piso 16, Santiago, Chile Tel: 562 8274237 – 562 8274238 – 562 3801402 Fax: 562 3801654 (Central authority in regard to legal assistance {article 9} and extradition requests {article 10}) - Unidad Relaciones Internacionales y Cooperación Ministerio de Justicia Morandé 107, piso 7, Santiago, Chile Tel: 562 – 6743286 Fax: 562 6743284 (Central authority in regard to consultations related to jurisdiction {article 43}) - Consultations on reporting, and monitoring of these offence’s reports should be done to the Specialized Anti-Corruption Unit of the National Prosecutor’s Office.
General Mackenna N° 1369, piso 3, Santiago, Chile. Tel: 562 – 9659552 Fax: 562 - 9659567 Working Group on Bribery Monitoring Reports Phase 1: Review of Implementation of the Convention and 1997 Recommendation (August 2004) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/45/33742154.pdf Phase 2: Report on the Application of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions and the 1997 Recommendation on Combating Bribery in International Business Transactions (October 2007) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/10/39540391.pdf Phase 1bis: Review of implementation of the Convention and 1997 Recommendation (October 2009) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/62/32/43902840.pdf
Phase 2: Follow-up Report on the implementation of the Phase 2 Recommendations (October 2009) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/8/12/44130051.pdf Phase 1ter: Review of implementation of the Convention and 1997 Recommendation (December 2009) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/12/44254056.pdf