Angel Ganev – а partner and head of Litigation and Arbitration practice group at DGKV has been designated by Leopoldo Pagotto a senior chair of the Anti-Corruption Committee of the IBA as a prominent Bulgarian practitioner who shall take part in the upcoming Phase 4 evaluation of Bulgaria by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) OECD Working Group on Bribery.
Established in 1994, the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions (Working Group) is responsible for monitoring the implementation and enforcement of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, the 2009 Recommendation on Further Combating Bribery of Foreign Bribery in International Business Transactions (2009 Anti-Bribery Recommendation) and related instruments.
This peer-review monitoring system is conducted in successive phases and is considered by Transparency International to be the ‘gold standard’ of monitoring.
As part of the evaluation, a virtual visit will take place in early May during which the evaluation team will meet with representatives of the legal profession to discuss the legal framework for the fight against foreign bribery and the enforcement of the offence by public prosecutors and courts.
Angel Ganev was identified as a private sector lawyer specialising in white collar crimes and anti-bribery and was invited by the Bulgarian government to participate in this discussion with the OECD evaluation team. The other participants will include representatives of the public and private sectors in Bulgaria, non-governmental organizations, the media and representatives of the academic community.
The purpose of the meeting is the monitoring of the implementation of the OECD Convention is to assess Bulgaria's progress in implementing the recommendations of the report of the same Phase 3 inspection in 2011, as well as to discuss key issues related to disclosure. of a crime of bribery of a foreign official, as well as the law enforcement and liability of legal entities.
More information on the activities of the working groups, as well as the evaluation reports of Bulgaria from previous inspections can be found in the following links:
About the Working Group on Bribery:
About the Working Group on Bribery’s monitoring process:
About the Phase 4 monitoring guide:
https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/Phase-4-Guide-ENG.pdf
Bulgaria and the Anti-Bribery Convention
As a Party to the Anti-Bribery Convention, Bulgaria has already undergone three evaluations. Previous evaluation reports for Bulgaria are available online here:
Phase 1 report: https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/anti-briberyconvention/2385450.pdf
Phase 2 report: https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/anti-briberyconvention/2790505.pdf
and Phase 2 follow-up report:
https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/anti-briberyconvention/36101867.pdf
Phase 3 report:
https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/anti-briberyconvention/Bulgariaphase3reportEN.pdf
and Phase 3 follow-up report:
https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/BulgariaPhase3WrittenFollowUpEN.pdf