Anti-Bribery and Corruption Reviews

 Many organisations around the world now find themselves faced with a new compliance risk – the need to comply with the rules and regulations set out in the UK Bribery Act 2010, which came into force on 1 July 2011. The Bribery Act creates the following offences:

• Active bribery: promising or giving a financial or other advantage.
• Passive bribery: agreeing to receive or accepting a financial or other advantage.
• Bribery of foreign public officials.
• The failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery by an associated person (corporate offence)

The Bribery Act also introduces the concept of a commercial bribe rather than just bribing foreign officials, as is dealt with by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“the FCPA’). All companies and individuals that have an association to the UK are covered by the Act and therefore have to ensure that they have adequate procedures in place to mitigate against corruption. According to the Serious Fraud Office in the UK “no procedures means no defence”. RISQ currently assists organisations meet their obligations under this Act and the FCPA in a number of ways, including:

•  Conducting due diligence on their associates or third parties who act for them (such as agents, brokers, distributors, exclusive retailers, etc).
• Conducting due diligence on vendors who have the authority to act on behalf of the company (travel agents, shipping agents).
• Designing and implementing training and awareness programmes for staff.
• Undertaking bribery and corruption risk assessments.
• Providing advice and guidance to clients on what the Act entails and what they should be doing to be compliant (structuring the policy statement, drafting declarations, the type of due diligence required, etc}
• Conducting on-site reviews at the client’s offices to monitor compliance to the Bribery Act and FCPA..