December 12, 2013
Yesterday the Federal Government announced the launch of a new public consultation, which will run until March 11, 2014, looking at ways to amend the Federal Canada Business Corporations Act to better tackle bribery and corruption. In making the announcement, Canada’s Minister of Industry said:
“Our government is committed to engaging in meaningful conversations on issues around corporate governance. … That means having greater access to information on corporations in a timely and transparent manner and being in a stronger position to support law enforcement and other government agencies in the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion by improving the ability to trace and detect criminal funds in the Canadian financial sector.”
According the Industry Minister, this new consultation is a follow-up on its earlier Budget promise to consider ways to strengthen corporate governance in Canada and an effort to follow through on OECD recommendations for countries to take steps to review “company and business accounting, external audits and internal controls, ethics and compliance” to combat bribery and corruption in international transactions.
Some corruption and governance related issues that have been identified for review include: greater ownership transparency (to reduce the likelihood companies are used for money laundering, terrorist financing, etc.) and examining the adequacy of existing corporate governance legislation to reduce bribery and corruption.
In connection with its consultation, the Government has launched a consultations page (see: here) and published a discussion paper (see: here).
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