IV. COUNTRY REPORTS The following country reports summarise the assessments by Transparency International experts of enforcement of the Convention in their countries. This year the country experts were asked to provide information on foreign bribery cases and investigations, as well as on aspects of access to enforcement information, the legal framework and enforcement system. The country reports cover the developments of the years 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 and do not go back further in time so as to focus on how the signatory countries recently enforce against foreign bribery. In the description of cases, only those are included that are considered foreign bribery from the point of view of the assessed country, though parallel criminal procedures in the same cases conducted by authorities of other countries are often referred to. Please note that in the following reports, convictions and sentences reported may be subject to appeal, and that the existence of a prosecution, investigation or settlement does not mean that the company, employees or other persons named have in fact been involved in any illegal activity.
ARGENTINA: LIMITED ENFORCEMENT.
Share of World Exports: 0.43 per cent
Foreign Bribery Cases and Investigations One case was initiated in Argentina in 2010 against Palmat C.A., an agricultural machinery sales and support company. This followed complaints in April 2010 from the former Argentine ambassador to Venezuela, that entrepreneurs doing business with the Venezuelan government at the time had to pay between 15 and 20 per cent in bribes to officials of the Ministry of Federal Planning.6 Recently, the former ambassador was prosecuted for false testimony related to this case.7 The Palmat case relates to allegations that the company served as an intermediary for various Argentine firms seeking to bribe Venezuelan officials.8 A judicial investigation was initiated in 2009, against an Argentine-Bolivian joint venture Catler Uniservice and its Argentine suppliers Sica Metalúrgica and Lito Gonella e Hijos de Santa Fé. It is reportedly connected to allegations of bribery of Bolivian officials at the state-owned petroleum company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to obtain a US$88 million contract to build a gas liquification plant in Bolivia in 2008.9 Another case involving an Argentine-US joint venture CBK Power Company, relating to alleged bribes to a former Philippine minister of justice in connection with a hydroelectric construction and operation project, was closed and then reopened in February 2010 until it was ultimately dropped in 2012.10
Access to Information Information on the number of cases is available, although access to criminal proceedings is forbidden to anyone not party to the case. Information can be requested and is left to the discretion of the proceeding judge. In general, one learns of cases and their developments through the news. 6 La Nacion, 1 March 2011, “Impiden el cierre del caso Sadous”, www.lanacion.com.ar/1353872-impiden-el-cierre-delcaso-sadous. 7 La Nacion, 29 May 2013, “Sadous fue procesado por falso testimonio”, www.lanacion.com.ar/1586425-sadous-fueprocesado-por-falso-testimonio 8 La Nacion, 8 May 2010, “"Realizamos un trabajo transparente’, dijo Wellisch” www.lanacion.com.ar/1262486realizamos-un-trabajo-transparente-dijo-wellisch. 9 La Nacion, 17 March 2009, “Bolivia castiga a firmas argentinas”, www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1109352. 10 La Nacion 15 January 2003, “Involucran a Impsa en un caso de corrupción”, www.lanacion.com.ar/466334involucran-aimpsa-en-un-caso-de-corrupcion
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TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL