Since 2006, the ADB/OECD Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific has conducted Thematic Reviews of specific areas of its members' anticorruption efforts. Through the Reviews, the Initiative’s Steering Group takes stock of each member’s efforts, identifies challenges that have been encountered, and proposes recommendations for a way forward in order to overcome these difficulties. The reviews also identify cross-country trends and common obstacles, which in turn allow the Initiative to tailor its capacity building activities to address these challenges. The first Thematic Review in 2006 focused on members’ anti-corruption efforts in public procurement. A second Review in 2007 looked at extradition, mutual legal assistance and asset recovery in corruption cases.

Criminalisation is a key component of a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy and a vital complement to other efforts such as corruption-prevention and detection. Criminalisation thus figures prominently in international anticorruption instruments such as the Initiative's Anti-Corruption Action Plan, the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions (OECD Anti-Bribery Convention) and the UN Convention against Corruption. The purpose of this Thematic Review is to analyse the criminal legal and enforcement framework for fighting bribery among the Initiative’s members and to provide suggestions for improvement. The exercise covers the offences of bribery of domestic and foreign public officials by natural and legal persons, as well as aspects of investigating, enforcing and sanctioning these offences.

Criminalisation is a key component of a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy. It deters individuals and officials from engaging in corrupt behaviour. It can also disgorge the profits of the crime and recompense the victim and the state. Criminalisation is thus a vital complement to other anti-corruption efforts such as prevention and detection.