While KYC and AML have been front of mind when it comes to compliance and the fight against fraud, anti-bribery and corruption compliance hasn’t been in the spotlight as much lately. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be paying close attention to it.
Why is it important?
Preventing bribery and corruption is a high priority for governments across the globe. Penalties have increased across different jurisdictions and efforts have been made to create international standards. Acknowledging that governments alone can’t fight this threat, there has been an increased focus on self-regulation and corporate compliance.
Both in the USA and UK, companies involved in bribery and corruption could face fines and criminal and civil penalties that include jail time for failure to prevent such acts. For example, the UK Bribery Act goes beyond bribery to public companies, including the private sector as well. The United State’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) can be seen as a companion to the UK legislation and sets a global standard for corruption, as it was amended to include domestic and foreign companies. You can find more information on specific jurisdictions here, but the bottom line is: if companies don’t have an effective anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance programme in place, they can face dire consequences.
How can an organisation be prepared to fight this battle?
With the complex landscape of a fast-paced, globalised world, that involves doing business across different geographies and working with multiple third-parties across their supply chain, companies need to make sure they are operating safely and doing all they can to prevent bribery and corruption from happening under their watch. Here are 5 tips to address the challenge:
Getting buy-in from the company
As it is often the case with non-revenue generating functions, companies can relegate investment in compliance technology and cut programme resources short. It is easy to lose sight of all the implications of the lack of investment. Therefore, in order to get the green light for a key project, compliance executives need to be able to demonstrate the reasons behind it, the possible consequences of doing nothing and what the investment will bring to the table. Here’s some food for thought on how to build a business case to the board: