The Bribery Bill, which was due to come into effect this April, has been delayed as part of the Government’s Growth Review, an effort to stimulate business performance in the private sector. Guidance on best practice for enforcing the bill is being supplied to businesses with the bill expected to be enforced three months later.
This deferment should not encourage businesses to rest on their laurels. The United Kingdom is ranked 20th in this year’s Transparency World Corruption Index, the world’s most credible domestic public sector corruption measure. Three quarters of the 180 countries listed were low scoring, including many G20 member states. The ever-increasing globalisation of business means that the successful implementation of the bill is vital for maintaining the credibility of UK and global business alike.
The Act creates a strict liability offence of failure by a commercial organisation to prevent payments of bribes by employees or others working on its behalf. With the onus of accountability shifting to corporate heads, no matter what size or sector your business, maintaining unequivocal control of your anti-bribery measures is fundamental to the protection of your staff and business. Responsibility is far-reaching and encompasses lack of preventative measures domestically and across the globe. Even if a CEO has no direct knowledge of the alleged bribery, culpability will be in their court.
Risk management and establishing a culture of intolerance to bribery and illegal activity must be prioritised in order to assure your organisation is adherent to the Act. Ensuring that staff have not only been informed of the policy but are comprehensively trained and sign off to this effect goes a long way toward achieving compliancy and peace of mind.
The gravitas that must be placed on compliance and the importance of avoiding ambiguous procedures cannot be stressed enough. At risk is your business, incurring unlimited fines, blacklisting from EU contracts and forfeiture of proceeds of illegal deals. The Act also increases the maximum jail term for bribery from seven to 10 years.
Dissemination of responsibility is paramount. Once a culture of anti-corruption has been established, the government recommends the appointment of one senior officer to oversee all aspects of the anti-bribery bill and any concomitant activity. A published code of conduct should include intrinsic information on the subject and of company expectations. Risk management procedures must be employed and evaluated. Accounts departments should be vigilant when processing expenses and external invoices and a robust and reliable reporting system put in place. An anti-corruption program must be implemented and monitored with equal care and attention to that given to any other corporate management or audit process. It should be modified according to the contexts of company size, value and nature of business transactions, project location and risk assessment.
In September Expolink held a Compliance Seminar which sought to address the need for education and evaluation of best business practice relating to the Act. We had the pleasure of welcoming Roderick Macaulay, a barrister co-authoring the bill, from the Ministry of Justice as speaker, amongst others, which sparked lively and necessary debate into the act and its implications and was a great success. A further seminar will coincide with the launch of the bill later this year.
If you would like further information on our solutions or receive our quarterly newsletter please call 01249 661 604 or fill out the contact form below.
