Chile has arrested two former army officers in connection with a bribery scandal surrounding the purchase of 200 Dutch tanks. They were apparently paid 300 million dollars in 1998 by the Dutch company RDM, which is owned by Joep van den Nieuwenhuyzen. How often are Dutch people prosecuted for paying bribes in other countries?
 
In the Chilean case, the Dutch company which sold the tanks, and is now bankrupt, is not being prosecuted. It cannot legally be brought to trial since bribing foreign officials has only been a punishable offence since 2001. Joep van den Nieuwenhuyzen denies having anything to do with bribery. He claims he did pay money to the Chilean authorities but that it was a commission. The money was for an intermediary who had made the deal possible. Mr Van den Nieuwenhuyzen was later questioned at the request of the Chilean Justice Ministry but the Dutch public prosecutor didn't have a legal leg to stand on.
 
No one convicted
The law has changed since 2001 and companies can be taken to court on suspicion of bribery. But it doesn't happen often. In fact, no one has been convicted since the law was changed. That's surprising in a country where so many international transactions take place every day and where trading outside the national borders has been going on for centuries.
 
Gerben Smid of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, who is researching the problem and is also a member of Transparency International, says the lack of convictions is the result of all kinds of difficulties in finding evidence. He claims it is difficult because the bribery often happens in countries where many officials have a direct interest in the bribe money paid. Requests for legal cooperation from Dutch detectives are therefore ignored. But it's more than that, he argues. There seems to be a lack of political will in the Netherlands to tackle Dutch companies: 
 
"What we see is that other countries, like the United States for example, do tackle big companies. They also have a wide range of penalties for these kinds of cases of bribery abroad. Something always comes to light. Other countries too, like Germany and Great Britain, show stronger enforcement. The Netherlands is lagging behind. Perhaps we need a really big case to get the machinery moving, so far we're still waiting."
 
Average
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which compiles an annual report on efforts to tackle corruption in dozens of countries, gives the Netherlands an average score. The Netherlands is on a par with South Korea, Belgium and Italy. The OECD says whistleblowers must have better protection and the penalties needs to be tougher.

Gerben Smid from Erasmus University has another idea for improvement. He believes tracking down these criminals should not be the responsibility of the National Criminal Investigation Office as it is at present.
 
"I do wonder whether the National Criminal Investigation Office is the best organisation to investigate these cases. There may well be a role for financial detectives who have more expertise in investigating direct and indirect funding and the like."
 
Mr Smid's suggestion is beginning to meet with a positive response. The Public Prosecutor's Office has indicated that it will be turning more often to detectives from the Fiscal Inspectorate (FIOD) when investigating cases of bribery abroad.