[JURIST] An anti-bribery panel for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [official website] urged governments on Friday to dig deeper into evidence of kickbacks and corruption reported by an independent UN commission investigating the UN's now-defunct Iraq oil-for-food program [official website; JURIST news archive]. Only 11 of the 40 countries whose citizens have been implicated by the inquiry have requested to see the evidence to conduct their own criminal investigations, with the United States and France leading the way. The OECD's anti-bribery convention [OECD materials] requires corruption by foreign public officials be treated as a criminal offense. The independent inquiry into the oil-for-food program released its final report [JURIST report] in October, identifying kickbacks and other illicit payments totaling $1.8 billion with approximately 4,500 companies involved worldwide. AP has more.