Corruption Register

The purpose of establishing a corruption register is to exclude companies or individuals with serious misconduct from awarding public contracts .

meaning

A list of companies and / or persons should be listed in a corruption register who have committed particularly criminal offenses through bribery ( corruption ), illegal employment , violation of the War Weapons Control Act, violation of competition regulations or illegal work.

It was discussed that public clients should be legally obliged to report individuals and companies to the register as soon as serious misconduct becomes known.

It was discussed to set up the registry at the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control. Not only public prosecutors and state criminal police offices could then be authorized. Access would also be granted to the municipalities placing the tenders and other public clients.

Legislative initiatives

Federal Republic of Germany

On April 26, 2002, the Bundestag passed the law on collectively agreed remuneration for public contracts and the establishment of a register of unreliable companies. On September 27, 2002, the Federal Council rejected the law to set up a register of unreliable companies (“corruption register”) with the votes of the Union-led countries, after no agreement had previously been reached in the mediation committee.

On June 26, 2013, the last session of the Bundestag in this legislative period, the final deliberations on the draft law of Alliance 90 / The Greens in the Committee on Economy and Technology was blocked by the majority parliamentary groups; as a result, the draft could no longer be brought to a vote in the Bundestag. The parliamentary group of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen introduced a draft law on November 7, 2012 (Drs. 17/11415), according to which companies that have been convicted of corruption offenses or against which there is sufficient suspicion of corruption, for up to five years be kept in a corruption register. The long period should allow contracting authorities to more effectively check the reliability of potential contractors before awarding the contract.

On June 1, 2017, the Bundestag decided, with the votes of the grand coalition, to introduce a nationwide competition register . Greens and left abstained. The register should be operational by 2020 at the latest. The registers of the federal states will then be deleted. It was issued on July 18, 2017 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2739 ).

North Rhine-Westphalia

On September 14, 2004, the parliamentary groups of the SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen presented the law to set up a corruption register as a draft in order to introduce it into the state parliament. This made NRW the first federal state in which efforts were made to establish a corruption register in law. On December 15, 2004, the Düsseldorf state parliament passed an anti-corruption law. NRW thus became the first federal state to keep a register of corrupt entrepreneurs. It is now to be anchored by law that when a contract is awarded by the state and municipalities, the seriousness of the commissioned companies is checked. However, the test only becomes mandatory for an order volume of EUR 25,000 or more. From March 1, 2005, the public procurement offices of all federal states can inquire whether there is an entry there for contracts with an order value of 50,000 euros or more in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Berlin

On April 19, 2006 the "Law on the establishment and maintenance of a register of companies suspected of corruption in Berlin - Corruption Register Act" - (KRG) was passed and on May 3, 2006 in the Law and Ordinance Gazette for Berlin, Issue No. 16/2006, P. 358 proclaimed. On June 1, 2006, the Senate Department for Urban Development began to centrally keep the corruption register on companies in Berlin that are suspicious of corruption. Public clients are now legally obliged to inquire about known corruption-related or other violations in the register for all types of public contracts with a contract value of 15,000 euros or more.

Baden-Württemberg

The administrative regulation of the state government and the ministries for the prevention and fight against corruption of January 15, 2013 regulates the exclusion of private companies that obtain public contracts with illegal behavior or reprehensible means. For this purpose, a registration and information center was set up at the Karlsruhe regional council. As of January 1, 2020, the register does not contain any entries.

Constitutional concerns

The legally required registration of persons and companies, which is sometimes discussed and which are also to be registered during criminal proceedings, fine proceedings or when an indictment is admitted, may not be compatible with the constitution . Because as long as no legally binding violation has been established, the presumption of innocence must be in the foreground.

Non-binding lists

In some cases, non-binding lists are set up as corruption registers in the federal states.

A corruption register has existed in North Rhine-Westphalia since 1999 through a decree of the Ministry of Finance . With the exception of state authorities, no other contracting authorities are legally forced to exclude contracts. There is also no obligation to register persons and entrepreneurs with criminal offenses. The cooperation of the municipalities is voluntary. In 2002 there were 17 companies in the register and 170 inquiries were received from authorities every day. Anyone who is registered cannot receive any public contracts for three years.