In the six months it took to draw up the report, members of the OECD Working Group on Bribery visited Lisbon, where they carried out their own investigations into five alleged cases of bribery concerning civil servants. Their findings led last week to the arrest of two unnamed government officials, who have been charged with accepting bribes from foreign firms looking to set up in Portugal with the aid of EU grants.

A foreword published in a summary of the OECD report issued Monday, stated: "In recent years, corruption has become an important topic of public debate in Portugal, in the media and on the political scene. Integrity of Portuguese public officials has been the focus of growing public attention and perceived breach of integrity has sparked increased indignation in the Portuguese society".

Police in Lisbon have refused to issue the identities of the two civil servants presently under arrest, but have confirmed that court proceedings are expected to begin within three weeks.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Portugal's law enforcement agencies are also carrying out an investigation into three foreign businesses suspected of offering bribes to Portuguese civil servants.

Last week, The Portugal News revealed that the OECD wants Portugal to raise awareness of foreign bribery in both the public and private sector and be more proactive in detecting, investigating and prosecuting cases of bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions.

The OECD said in the report that due to the wide range of Portugal's international trading partners, including countries where risk of corruption may be especially high, more investigations and prosecutions of foreign bribery could be expected.

Some main recommendations for Portugal made by the OECD were, that the country take measures to disallow and forbid undocumented, confidential expenses in order to strengthen the tax administration's ability to detect bribes; amend laws to ensure the effective prosecution of bribery of foreign officials, by establishing a fully "autonomous definition" of foreign officials that eliminates the need to define the foreign official's status according to the law in his or her own country before pursuing the Portuguese briber; give law enforcement authorities additional resources and training to proactively detect, investigate and prosecute foreign bribery offences and to develop effective prevention strategies.

The Portugal News