ANTI-CORRUPTION COMPLIANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
R&C: What do you consider to be the main corruption trends in the Middle East over the past 12 months or so? How would you describe current corruption levels?
Al-Amri: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has administered multiple initiatives in the region to fight corruption and increase governance and control across the business and capital markets. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has highlighted significant gaps in the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) anti-money laundering frameworks and the lack of governance and control to identify the people behind multiple shell companies established in these countries. This has led to amendments in the laws and regular compliance reporting by financial institutions to the Central Bank of the UAE.
Bassi: To start with, the UAE is ranked as the 24th least corrupt nation out of 180 countries as per the ‘2021 Corruption Perceptions Index’. While some may consider that to be a good score, it does not necessarily mean that the UAE is not affected by corruption. The country has witnessed a few high-profile incidents of integrity breakdowns in the last 12 to 18 months in several key sectors of the economy, which have led to a further increase in monitoring and enforcement by UAE regulators. This is certainly poised to further reduce the level of bribery and corruption.
Enayet: Bribes and wasta – the corrupt use of personal connections – are the main form of corruption in Kuwait. Money laundering became apparent in certain sectors which raised the alarm for regulatory bodies in the past 12 months. Bribery and corruption have been embedded as almost part of doing business in Kuwait, but the government has become more active recently to tackle this.
Oct-Dec 2022 Issue
BDO